For Want of a Nail
by RedShirt94
Summary: Life was bland and repetitive for Peyton Sheffield. Wake up, go to school, go home, pretend you have a life other than the internet, go to sleep, rinse and repeat. Then Albus Dumbledore came waltzing into her home. SI
1. The Day Dumbledore Waltzed Into My Life

**For Want of a Nail**  
**(** a harry potter fanfiction**)**

x o x o  
_Harry Potter © J.K. Rowling_  
_For Want of a Nail © The Eccentric Otaku_  
x o x o

**C.H.A.P.T.E.R. O.N.E.**  
_"The Day Albus Dumbledore Waltzed Into My Life"_

The first time I witnessed magic, believe it or not, was by accident. The streets had been particularly pushy on that day, I remember.

School had just let out, and Brandi- my best friend- and I were especially exuberant. Nothing felt better than the adrenaline rush that coursed through your veins the moment the shrill bell pardoned us.

Along with hundreds of impatient students flooding the pavement, adults were both arriving and leaving from their jobs, resulting in an overcrowding. It wasn't unexpected when I found myself lost in the crowd, best friend nowhere at hand.

Suffocating and being stepped all over- curse my height!- I found a small alley a few feet ahead and practically threw myself at it. Decidedly safe and able to breath, I realized for the first time that I was not alone.

Further down the alley, just barely in hearing distance, were two men speaking with each other. More like arguing, I realize, as a much taller man viciously shoves the noticeably shorter one. Deciding that I wanted no part in their quarrel, I was prepared to turn back when I heard a sudden popping noise and noticed something that mace me rub my eyes in disbelief.

The taller man was gone.

As I stood there in frozen shock, the remaining man swore loudly to himself before suddenly vanishing with a loud pop as well. I took a moment to blink wearily at the now vacant spot. They had just disappeared- poof!

I stood alone in the dead-end street for a couple more minutes before a tug at my shoulder caused me to jump and swirl around. There stood Brandi, gazing at me with irritation.

"What the hell is taking you so long?" She raved as she tugged me back into the less populated street. Confused and more than a little concerned for my mental stability, I described to her everything I saw moments prior.

The girl had frozen, watched me for a moment with an unidentifiable look in her eye, before calling me an idiot and walking away briskly. Slightly offended, I remember chasing after her and demanding what she meant by that.

I had so many question, but I would always remember that odd look on her face and decide not to ask.

The second time I witnessed magic, it came in the form of an old man, complete with a lengthy beard and wearing an odd dress, claiming to be called Albus Dumbledore. That day, still extremely vivid in my mind, deserves a much better explanation.

It all started with a letter.

–

"Peyton!"

I woke with a violent jerk and shout (_"Present!"_), shaking the table I had been previously sleeping on. Books were spread across it messily, a particular one- a manga- now out in the open, where it had previously been hidden within a math book, which I had been reading secretly.

I looked around quickly in my sleepy stupor, fully expecting a teacher to be hovering over me with a disapproving tint in their eye, threatening a full week of detention.

Instead I was met with an eye full of my apparently amused best friend.

"Why the bloody hell have you been in the _library_?" She asked, a slight disbelief in her eyes as she pondered the chances of me coming willingly.

Looking around, I realized that I was, in fact, in the library, and school was seemingly over. With a yawn, I started gathering my books, throwing them haphazardly into my bag.

"I brought the newest edition of a manga I've been reading lately to school, and my Literature teacher gave me permission to come to the library to 'study'," I informed her, motioning quotation marks with my fingers at the word study.

"She let you come in here holding a _math_ book?" She grabbed said book from underneath the manga, flashing it in front of my face with a smirk.

"Oh...well, I guess she didn't notice," I remarked dumbly, shrugging and snatching it from her in order to thrust it into my bag as well.

I threw my bag over my shoulder and stood with a slight daze, still not quite awake. Pushing the chair I had been sitting on back under the table, I followed Brandi out, though not before waving politely to the librarians.

"Apparently neither did you," She grinned, slapping me on the shoulder playfully, which I returned. Soon it turned into a slap fest until one of the teachers caught us and told us to break it up.

We left the school grinning like idiots, both feeling a bit more upbeat than before. The wind ruffled our hair as I talked nonstop to Brandi. She simply listened quietly, inputting something every now and again.

"Oh! Are you coming over to my house today?" I asked, remembering something that I wanted to show her. I shivered as a particularly colder wind tickled my skin.

"You know it," She replied, lifted her hand for a high five.

"Great!" I exclaimed, slapping her hand enthusiastically, a bit too enthusiastic if her rubbing the hand was any indication. "Something weird came in the mail today that I want to show you."

She looked as if she wanted to know more but before she could ask, we were already in front of my house. I was startled to find my dad pacing the front porch, fingers running through his hair in frustration.

"Dad?" I asked curiously, before noticing a stack of letters jutting out from the small opening in our door and several more laying across the porch. "Are there more letters?"

I knew it was a dumb question, but it was shown correct as he let out a loud screech and threw himself down into one of the chairs on the porch. I could feel Brandi's gaze burning into the back of my head.

"Letters?" She asked, though there was an odd feeling as she spoke. Turning around to look at her, I notice that she had the same look upon her face as she did a couple years before, the day I saw those men vanish from an alley.

"Yeah," I decided not to comment on it and instead answered her question. "Since this morning we have gotten tons of letters, all saying the same thing. It says something about some magic school for 'the magically gifted' or some nonsense. It's pretty ridiculous."

As I said this, I couldn't help but notice the small shroud of doubt in my voice. I thought back to the alley, wondering if it was quite as ridiculous as I made it out to be. I also took notice in the way Brandi's face turned an even whiter shade of pale the more I spoke.

"Oh," My dad was brought out of his anger bubble as he seemed to remember something. "Your mom called, Brandi. She said to come home immediately. She sounded pretty happy about something. Was muttering something about following the family tradition. Sounded loony in my opinion. You might want to go check up on her."

Her face was an impossible shade of white now as her eyes flew back and forth between us, obviously panicking over something. Concerned, I was about to ask her if she was alright until she quickly excused herself and took off down the street.

I looked at my dad, brows raised in confusion, and we shrugged simultaneously. It was probably just a Brandi thing. Stepping onto the porch, I grabbed and opened one of the letters, reading it quickly;

_HOGWARTS SCHOOL  
of WITCHCRAFT and WIZARDRY_

_Headmaster: Albus Dumbledore  
(Order of Merlin, First Class, Grand Sorc., Chf. Warlock,  
Supreme Mugwump, International Confed. of Wizards)_

_Dear Miss Sheffield,_

_We are pleased to inform you that you have been accepted at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Please find enclosed a list of all necessary books and equipment.  
Term begins on September 1. We await your owl by no later than July 31._

_Yours sincerely,_

_Minerva McGonagall  
Deputy Headmistress_

With it came another sheet;

_Requirement List_

_UNIFORM  
First-year students will require:  
1. Three sets of plain work robes(black)  
2. One plain pointed hat(black)for day wear  
3. One pair of protective gloves(dragon hide or something similar)  
4. One winter cloak(black,silver fastenings)  
Please note that all pupils' clothes should carry name tags._

_COURSE BOOKS_

_All students should have a copy of each of the following:  
The Slandered Book of Spells(Grade1)  
by Miranda Goshawk  
A history of Magic  
by Bathilda Bagshot  
Magical Theory  
by Adalbert Waffling  
A Beginners Guide to Transfiguration  
by Emeric Fungi  
One thousand magical herbs and fungi  
by Phyllida Spore  
Magical Drafts and Potions  
by Arsenius Jigger  
Fantastic Beast and where to Find Them  
by Newt Scamander  
The Dark Forces: A Guide of Self Protection  
by Quentin Trimble_

_OTHER EQUIPMENT_

_1 wand  
1cauldron(pewter, standard size2)  
1set of crystal phial  
1 telescope  
1 set of brass scales  
Student may also bring an owl OR a cat OR a toad_

_PARENTS ARE REMINDED THAT FIRST YEARS ARE NOT ALLOWED THEIR OWN BROOMSTICKS_

"It's the same as earlier…" I mumble as I stuff it back into the envelope, but not before noticing what was written on the front.

_Miss P. Sheffield_

_St. Marys Grove, London, W4_

"Broomstick, wand, cauldron… these people are serious in trying to get us to believe this," I state, letting the envelope fall to the floor. My dad opens his mouth as if he's going to say something but before he can get any words out, something big and gray flies inches from my face before perching itself in front of me.

With wide eyes, I stare at the owl in front of me as he dropped another letter. Before we have time to register what just happened, it flaps its wings and flies off once more, leaving an identical letter to the ones currently flooding our porch.

"Dad…" I call, eyes still trained on the spot the owl once sat. "Do you actually think someone would go this far just for a prank?"

My dad dropped to the floor once more, obviously exasperated, before ordering me to go inside. I hesitantly do so, wondering what the bloody hell was going on. I wanted to tell him about what I saw in the alley, but I was worried he wouldn't believe me. Honestly, it was getting even harder to believe this was simply a prank.

As much as I was starting to believe that, the concept of magic was pretty hard to believe as well. After all, it sounds like some sort of corny book where the protagonist ends up finding out magic exists, they can use it, and they end up being some sort of hero.

I read too many books, I decided. I stepped into the house and dropped my bag to the floor, carelessly throwing my shoes off. Before I could even fully step into the kitchen, the first room you come to as you enter our house, my sister came barreling down the stairs, talking a mile a minute.

"Not fair…why do you get to go…I wanna do magic…" I caught only a few words, the rest coming out so quickly it sounded more like 'blah blah blah'. Seeing that she wasn't about to tire out and quiet down, I slapped my hand over her mouth and interrupted her.

"Macy, please, shut up." She gave me an angry glare before licking my hand, causing me to blanch but not remove it. Eyebrows knitting together, I gave her a curious look.

"You believe the whole thing about magic and stuff?" I asked, my question innocent enough. My disbelief was waning, and I wanted her opinion on the mess as well.

"Of course!" She instantly piped, grinning obnoxiously. "What, and you don't?"

Instead of answering her, I swatted her on the arm before walking to the fridge, grabbed a coke, and barricading myself in my room. I could hear her yells from the bottom of the stairs as she cried over being ignored.

Throwing myself into my desk chair, I scooted it over to my computer and logged on, clicking on the tab with my email. Checking it, I quickly noticed an email from Brandi.

'_I'm coming over tonight. We need to talk.'_

Blinking, I instantly hit reply and quickly typed back a message.

'_Sure. What time?'_

After a few minutes slowly crept by, I was rewarded for my patience.

'_After your dad and sister go to sleep.'_

Curious, I deleted the message and rolled over to my bed, standing up long enough to throw myself on it instead. Something was up with Brandi, and I had an idea that it had something to do with the weird letters.

It obviously had to be something important if she was going to wait until everyone went to sleep. Glancing at the clock on my desk, it read 5:28. Great, I had to find something to do for another nine hours and thirty-two minutes.

My thoughts instantly went to the several Dragon Ball episodes I had stored on my computer's hard drive. Snapping open my coke, I decided there was going to be a marathon tonight.

Hours later, after roughly fifteen DB episodes and four cokes, a light but incessant tap resounded from my window.

Flying to it, I instantly unlocked and opened the small window and let Brandi pull herself through. Twigs and leaves were sticking from her disheveled hair, and there were black spots decorating her now messy clothes. I laughed.

"Haha, so funny. It took me nearly half an hour to climb up that stupid tree!" She barked (Ha, get it?), attempting to straighten her appearance. After a few minutes, finally satisfied with how she looked, she looked at me seriously.

"Peyton, we need to talk about those letters."

I opened my mouth to say something along the lines of 'I knew it!', when a loud crash came from downstairs. With wide eyes, I jumped nearly a foot in the air and almost threw myself on Brandi in the process.

I could already hear the slam of my dad's bedroom door as he thrust it open, most likely with one of his golf clubs in hand, obviously going to investigate the crash.

Beside me, I could see Brandi frozen in shock, as startled as I was at the sudden interruption. We silently decided to keep quiet for a moment, stressing our ears in hope that we'll hear what was going on.

Another crash came from downstairs, and I could hear my dad's voice yelling something, not happy. A different voice wafted up the stairs, though it was inaudible. The best I could hear was mumbling.

Brandi, however, seemed to possess better hearing than me, as she had gone a similar pale as earlier and darted towards the door.

Surprised, I instinctively followed after as she tore down the hallway and down the stairs, only a few feet behind. The sight in the room was a surprising one, to say the least.

Pans and pots littered the floor- as we were in the kitchen- and the tables had slid a couple of feet, as if moved by some sort of wind. Every item seemed to surround something, and in the middle of the rubble stood an old man.

It was a peculiar sight, and would have been humorous if not for the stick the old man was holding. I was instantly reminded of books and pictures of wizards and witches. He was most definitely holding a wand. Whether it was fake or not was the question. After all, wasn't this whole scene rather absurd?

As I stood there in a daze, my friend had also frozen at the sight, now only a little bit behind my dad as he stood there, not very threatening with one of his several clubs.

"Ah," The old man started as his eyes, which I noticed possessed a bit of a sparkle, wondered to me. "It's nice to meet you Miss Sheffield, a pleasure indeed."

He then switched his focus to my best friend, who's posture had straightened slightly, I noticed.

"And Miss Holland is here as well. Marvelous! This makes things much quicker."

My dad, who had looked startled at the mention of Brandi, let his eyes flick back and forth between me and Brandi, obviously wondering why she was there, before deciding to work on that later. There were, after all, more important matters at hand.

"I don't know who the hell you think you are," He growled, lifting his club higher in hopes of appearing threatening. "but you're going to leave. Now."

The twinkle in the man's eyes never faltered as he now singled in on my dad, stroking his beard contemplatively. I just stood there, dumb founded.

"I'm afraid that I cannot leave, at least, not until I have settled matters with Miss Sheffield and Miss Holland."

Glancing at my friend, I crinkled my brows in confusion. Has she been getting letters as well? If so, why didn't she tell me?

"You see," The old man continued. "They have been formally invited to attend Hogwarts, a school for the magically gifted."

My dad scoffed, not backing down. "So you were the one leaving those prank letters, huh? Well I have had enough!"

I choked as my dad started to run at the man, club held high as he prepared to swing it. He never reached his target, however, as the man swished his 'wand' and my dad flew off to the side, club flying to the other side of the room.

Shocked, I almost didn't hear what he said next.

"You thought it was a joke? I can assure you that it was not. Now," He turned back to us, and it almost felt as though he were staring into my innermost thoughts.

"As I have said, I have invited you both to attend Hogwarts. As you do not have owls, I will gladly take your replied now."

Silence was his only reply as I sorted through my thoughts. This wasn't real, right? Magic didn't exist. But he most definitely just sent my dad flying without even touching him. Not to mention that day in the alley…can I actually keep denying the inevitable?

Brandi's response was first. "Obviously I'll go."

My eyes flew to her figure, shocked, as I saw her staring at me, almost questioningly. "So…you believe in all of this?"

She obnoxiously rolled her eyes at me, a small smirk lighting up her features. "Duh. Can you really say that you don't?"

I couldn't. I knew that I couldn't, not after all that I have seen. Still… glancing at the unconscious body of my dad, I weighed my options.

I could deny the request and stay here, rot with boredom at school, and not to mention be without my best friend. If I accepted, we could stay together, and I would even be able to learn magic. It was an experience others would kill for, but I couldn't just leave my family like that…could I?

"Wait," I interrupt the silence. "Are you sure that I'm a wizard-or witch or whatever? I've never done any magic before."

The man sent me a kind smile as he responded surely. "You may not have ever used magic, but you definitely have it. If you don't believe me, then you could always go to the Ministry of Magic. They have a file on everyone with magical abilities."

That was enough of a confirmation for me, I decided.

"I want to go," I mumble. "but what about my family?"

I could understand Brandi not worrying about hers, as she only has her mother who, to be honest, was a complete bitch. In fact, I supported Brandi's decision to get as far away from her as possible, but there's no way I could just…leave.

"You can always come back and visit over the winter holidays, not to mention you will be coming back after each year is over with," He calmly replied.

The more he spoke, the more my hesitation began to disappear. As this man's and my best friend's eyes bore holes in my head, I made my decision.

"I want to go."

The man gave me a broad smile, the twinkle seemingly brightening tenfold. "Marvelous! I must say, I am rather glad I decided to come here myself. I would have sent Hagrid, but he's a bit tied up with another soon-to-be student."

Neither me or Brandi remarked on his strange rambling, though I noticed a small smile now lit her face. Heh, she knows she would have missed me if I chose not to accept.

"Oh, and where are my manners? I have yet to introduce myself. My name is Albus Dumbledore, the headmaster of Hogwarts."

I felt my jaw hit the floor as I stared at the man- Dumbledore, shocked that someone so…eccentric was the headmaster. Before I could ask anymore questions, Dumbledore checked a small pocket watch that came from somewhere within his clothes- which appeared to be a cloak, now that I look at him- and began to speak once more.

"I really must be going. The requirements and supplied you need are on one of the letters you were sent, and you shall be receiving a new one soon with more details pertaining to when and where you shall leave for Hogwarts."

"He," Dumbledore pointed idly to my dad, who was still conked out. "will wake up soon, but I can erase his and your sister's memories of today if you wish. It will be up to you on what you tell them regarding Hogwarts, though you may lie if you so wish."

With wide eyes, I distantly wondered what else wizards and witches could do. I could already feel a burst of excitement begin to eat away at me.

"That would be nice," I remark. "I'm sure I'll come up with something to tell them. Maybe something about a boarding school…whatever. What about your mom, Brandi?"

I notice her stiffen at my question, and she briskly replied. "She's taken care of."

Looking at Dumbledore, I notice he was missing a bit of his twinkle. Suspicion crept in as I watched the two, but my skeptics were forgotten as Dumbledore walked over to my dad and mumbled some gibberish. A small light flew slowly from the end of his wand to my dad's forehead before disappearing.

"I will go do the same for your sister now," He casually says with an upbeat tone, walking past me and further up the stairs to my sister's room.

Glancing at my friend, I immediately fire off a question.

"What are you not telling me?"

She looks at me innocently. "What are you talking about?"

Scoffing, I reiterate my question with more force. "What is it you aren't telling me? I'm not stupid- don't look at me like that! I'm not stupid, and I saw the look you both had when I asked about your mom, so spill!"

As she gave a defeated sigh, I knew I had won this little argument. "My mom is also a witch."

Blinking, I take a moment to register what she said before hesitantly speaking. "Okay…that's slightly surprising, but I'm not getting the point."

"That was all I was lying about," She obviously lied.

"Right, I'm sure it is," I remark sarcastically, eye twitching in irritation at being lied to.

"Look, I just don't want to talk about it!" She snapped. I decided to let it go, but it was definitely not going to be forgotten.

We fall into a tense silence as we each think about what has happened. Suddenly, something occurs to me.

"Wait a minute…how did you know your mom is a witch?" I question, eyeing her suspiciously. "You haven't… you haven't known about magic all along, have you?"

I screech angrily as she refuses to look me in the eye. "You mean you knew about this all along, and even called me an idiot after that day I saw those two blokes disappear in that alley?"

As I prepare to blow up at her, Dumbledore now strides down from my sister's bedroom.

"Well, it seems your family has been taken care of. I really must be off now."

Glaring at Brandi from the corner of my eye, I decide to wait until later to chew her out. "Thank you for everything, Dumbledore!"

I give him my lopsided grin as he smiles at me, waves, and simply disappears. Blinking in surprise, I figure that must be the same magic trick from the alley.

I heard a groan from my far left and turn to see my dad slowly regaining consciousness. Turning around, I growl lowly at Brandi.

"We will definitely talk about this later," She simply nods at me, though not without a smirk and the roll of her eyes, before leaving the house.

Looking at my wakening dad, I prepare to come up with an explanation as to why he's on the floor, where the hundreds of letters on the porch came from, and why I have suddenly decided I wanted to go to a boarding school.


	2. Where's Platform Nine and Three Quarters

**For Want of a Nail**  
**(** a harry potter fanfiction**)**

x o x o  
_Harry Potter © J.K. Rowling_  
_For Want of a Nail © The Eccentric Otaku_  
x o x o

**C.H.A.P.T.E.R. T.W.O.**  
_"Where's Platform 9 __¾__?"_

A week passed by slowly, and by the end I was far too excited to sit still for any longer than twenty seconds. Brandi was irritated at my impatience, and there was no new news as of yet.

While Brandi had no need to convince her mother, who I later learned had practically threw their family owl out the window with the acceptance letter minutes prior to Dumbledore's unexpected arrival, I had a far worse time with my dad.

I had spouted some nonsense about him sleep walking, stupid kids playing pranks, and how much I loved him before laying the news of wanting to go to a 'boarding school' on him. He didn't take it well.

Of course there was an immediate rejection, to which I threw myself at his feet, let fake tears spring to my eyes, and apologized for being such a spoiled brat, but I desperately wanted to go to this new boarding school that I recently heard about.

He muttered something about sleep before telling me we'd talk about this in the morning and walking off, probably to go back to bed. Lazy idiot.

That night I had ran up the stairs and turned on my computer, cross referencing any public schools that were too far away for my dad to visit, had decent standards, and seemed overall like an excellent school.

I eventually spotted one that seemed the most likely for me to get 'accepted' to, and I grabbed some paper and wrote down a list of facts about the place that would stand out to my dad.

The main thing he would be interested in was the educational standards.

You see, my dad is a big 'study, study, study' kind of man. He had straight A's in school, and he expects the same thing from us. I am, however, living proof that not all expectations are met. I can be somewhat lazy at times.

The next day, I rounded on my dad, throwing fact after fact at him.

"Why do you even care about what school you go to?" He eventually asked. "You've never cared before."

"Well," I began, thinking of a lie. "A couple of weeks ago in class we got our final exam results back, you see. There was this kid who made better than me and he was going around and bragging, and for the first time ever, I really wanted to show this guy up.

"So we had another test last week, which I studied for- yes, don't die of shock Dad, I actually studied- and made better! I shoved it in his face, and I felt so happy. I decided that I wanted to make good grades all the time from now on, and then I found out about this place-"

I frowned as I saw that my dad was hanging onto every word, obviously believing this. Inwardly, I thanked my dad for his clueless nature.

"That's a girl!" he said, smiling proudly as he thumped me roughly on the back. "So you've finally gotten the taste of the power of knowledge, and now you want more, huh?"

I held in laughter as I listened to him boast. I love my dad.

Eventually I managed to talk him into the new boarding school, and he didn't seem to dislike the idea as much anymore. He complained about the distance, but otherwise had no problems with it.

After the long and boring two weeks, we –meaning Brandi and I- finally got a letter.

I had been watching some more Dragon Ball on my computer when a tapping on my window met my ears.

I looked over and saw that Brandi was hanging there in front of the window, tapping in hopes of getting my attention. I like making her climb up to my window. It's kind of hilarious when she steps out with twigs in her hair.

Opening the window, I let her smooth her appearance out before asking anything.

"What were you doing out there?"

"I got these," she said, and I finally noticed that she held a large manila envelope in her hand.

"What is it?" I asked, trying to snatch it away, but only to have her hide it behind her back.

"An owl came in about half an hour ago. It has both of our names on the form, so I figured I might as well bring it over here so we could read it together." She sat on my bed and ripped the envelope open, tipping it over to let its contents fall.

Three small envelopes fell out.

Two had strange words on the front, one saying Gringotts and the other saying Tom, but I snatched and opened the one reading Miss Holland and Miss Sheffield.

Haphazardly ripping the top off, I removed the letter from inside and began to read.

_Miss Holland and Miss Sheffield,_

_We are pleased to inform you that we have received your acceptance. You are to board the train on Platform 9 ¾ at King's Cross station on September first. You must buy your supplies before that, and we have added another requirements sheet along with this in case you have misplaced the last one._

_Since we are short on available staff at the moment, we will be sending you to Diagon Alley alone. We have supplied you with two letters, however, one to give to Tom, the owner of The Leaky Cauldron, a pub, and he will open the barrier for you to enter Diagon Alley._

_The other letter is for anyone at Gringotts, the wizarding bank. They will understand what to do. Along with the extra requirement sheet is the address for The Leaky Cauldron, which you will have to take a train to get to._

_We eagerly await your arrival at Hogwarts._

_Yours Sincerely,_

_Minerva McGonagallDeputy Headmistress_

I found that there was, in fact, another requirements sheet with the letter and an address.

"So…" I began. "I guess we'll be going to this Diagon Alley together."

"Did you think we weren't going together anyway?" She stated, giving me all of the letters to keep. I placed them in one of my shoulder bags.

"Let's see…how about we go sometime around July thirtieth? That will give us plenty of time to save up to buy this stuff, since I know my dad won't give me any."

She nodded in confirmation, already standing up. "We can save up, and then meet on the thirtieth at the station. Dearest mother-of-mine confided me a tip that Gringotts exchanges Muggle money. We'll get what we need from there."

As she slipped soundlessly through my window and down the tree, I couldn't help but feel excited. If only September first would come quicker.

* * *

The thirtieth took forever to come. We had saved up roughly one hundred and fifty pounds together, which we hoped would be enough to buy our supplies once we exchanged the money.

We met at the station and boarded the train that would take us to the next station nearest to this pub, the Leaky Cauldron. I wondered vaguely if wizard minors could get carded.

Jumping off the train, I read over the letter for the hundredth time.

"Okay, it says to keep walking until we find the place called The Leaky Cauldron," I read to Brandi as we sped through the crowd and into the populated street. "Your mom didn't tell you how to get any of the wizard stuff?"

"No," She responded with the shake of her head. "She didn't tell me anything. The bit about exchanging money was all she was willing to divulge."

"Oh," I muttered dumbly, glancing at each store we walked by. On my other side, Brandi was doing the same. "Kind of like what you're making me do?"

I noticed a smirk sprout on her face, but she didn't deny it, "I'm still from a wizarding family, aren't I? My dearest mother may not tell me everything, but I have picked some things up over the years."

We fell into a calm silence as we each searched for this Leaky Cauldron, filtering out the noisy chatter and everyday sounds of London.

My stomach growled at one point as we passed by a particularly good smelling food stand, but neither of us said anything. We knew we had to save our money for the supplies we needed, and we couldn't chance using any money as we had no idea how much anything would cost.

Eventually I spotted a dingy, tiny little pub placed between a book shop and a record shop. I almost didn't notice it, but I froze when I spotted the little sign barely standing out in front, reading '_The Leaky Cauldron'_.

"There it is!" I pointed out, grabbing Brandi's arm and rushing over to it, ignoring her squawk of protest.

The inside was just as shabby as the outside, I noticed as we stepped in. The atmosphere was dark and dank, and there were very few people in the small building.

Brandi directed me over to the bartender, who had turned to us curiously as we entered.

"Do you know where we can find a Tom?" she asked the man, who by now looked even more curious. Looking around, I noticed that the few residents in the pub were all turned to us, listening in quietly.

"That would be me," he bartender spoke, and I handed the crumpled letter to him.

He took a minute to read the entire thing before once again looking at us. "Dumbledore has asked me to open the entrance to Diagon Alley for the both of you. Follow me, if you will."

He went around the bar blocking us from him and led us through the pub and into a small, walled courtyard, to which we simply followed after him, figuring he would know what to do.

The bartender walked to one of the walls and pulled out what was unmistakably a wand. He started to mumble to himself.

"Three up…two across…" He repeated it like a mantra before apparently finding what he was looking for. He tapped one of the bricks three times with the end of his wand.

I watched in amazement as the wall quivered, and a small hole formed. It grew and grew, and before long it formed an archway, leading to a long and winding path.

"There you go," he muttered before quickly walking back into the pub. Shrugging, both Brandi and I stepped onto the path.

Behind us, the archway narrowed again before disappearing all together and leaving nothing but a brick wall.

"This is so cool," I mutter to Brandi, eyeing the new area in awe.

The nearest shop had several shiny buckets on display which were labeled as cauldrons. Figuring we might as well get started, I headed in the direction of the shop until Brandi pulled me back onto the path.

"Not so fast, we need to exchange our money first," She told me, pulling me after her.

"They have different money? Where do we exchange it at?" I fired off questions, scanning each shop as we went by. Of course, my friend offered no explanation.

"I told you that we can exchange it at Gringotts, the wizard bank. I don't know how much we will get back with what we have, though."

As Brandi watched out for any signs with Gringotts on it, I tried to take in each and every store. There was a small store with a sign saying Apothecary on it, and another store had 'meow's and 'hoot's coming from it.

A store that they were currently passing by had broomsticks in the window, and I eagerly pointed them out to Brandi.

"Look, look! They actually use brooms to fly!" I exclaimed. She rolled her eyes and pulled me along.

We passed by book stores, shops with strange eyes on exhibit, and some had little signs advertising potions and spell books.

"There it is!" I heard Brandi's voice call victoriously, and I turned to look at this Gringotts place.

It was a bland color of white, hovering over all of the other shops. The color made my eyes sting, and standing next to the bronze doors was something short, wearing a uniform.

"That's a goblin," Brandi informed me as we advanced. "Looks like you've finally met someone shorter than you."

I playfully hit her on the arm before realizing that she was, sadly, right. The goblin was roughly a head shorter than me, and I felt powerful for once. I strode into the building with my head held high.

I blinked when he bowed as we walked inside.

There was another set of doors, now silver, and had words etched into them.

_Enter stranger, but take heed  
Of what awaits the sin of greed,  
For those who take, but do not earn,  
Must pay most dearly in their turn.  
If you seek beneath our floors  
A treasure that was never yours,  
Thief, you have been warned, beware  
Of finding more than treasure there._

"Whoa, that it awesome," I stared at the words with wide eyes.

"Yeah, they have some nice poetry going on," Brandi inputted from my side. "The rhyme scheme is a-a-b-b, by the way."

"Did I really need to know that?" I asked, and then stated mockingly. "Mrs. Vaughn would be so proud of you."

"As she damn well should be."

As we keep going, I noticed two more goblins at these silver doors, bowing to us again as we enter through them.

I marveled at the massive marble room we walked in to. Hundreds more goblins were situated in here, sitting on high stools behind a long counter, writing stuff, and all together looking very professional.

There were several doors, in which goblins were showing people in and out of.

"We need to head to the counter," Brandi instructed.

I followed her over and stood in front of a random, free goblin. "Excuse me," I spoke, already rifling through my shoulder bag and grabbing one of the small envelopes. "Dumbledore said to give this to you, and you would know what to do."

The small goblin took it, eyeing it curiously before ripping it open. He took a moment to read over it before turning to his fellow goblins.

"Okay, which one of you has the keys Mr. Dumbledore gave us?" he yelled scratchily.

All of the goblins froze and began searching the pockets of their uniforms quickly, before one gave a cry of victory.

"Here they are!" he called, holding them up as proof.

The goblin in front of us snatched it from him before turning to us. "It says here that Dumbledore created an account for both of you and gave us the keys. Moghaw here," he pointed to the goblin that previously had possession of the keys, "will show you to your vaults."

As the goblin stepped up to us, I whispered quietly to Brandi. "So we don't need the money we saved up?"

"I guess not," she answered back, and she continued at my indignant expression. "We could just get it exchanged anyway and save it for something extra, though."

Thinking about it, I shrugged. That didn't sound too bad.

We followed the goblin to one of the many doors, and I was shocked to see that inside it, instead of more marble, there was a dark tunnel with torches decorating the sides.

The tunnel was steep and ran downhill. The air was cool and damp, and even with the torches it was difficult to see anything.

"Cool…" I watched as the goblin whistled, and shortly after a small cart whizzed from the darkness and stopped before us.

We each stepped into the small cart before it hurtled downhill, going at an extreme speed. We seemed to be flying down random passages: left, right, left again, down, straight. A cold blast of wind stabbed my eyes, and I had a hard time keeping them open.

My hair flopped around wildly, and somewhere in the back of my mind, I could hear myself thinking how awesome this was.

"This is awesome!" I screamed to Brandi, smiling as I saw that she was desperately trying to keep her hair from messing up, which was a futile effort. She looked quite sick, as well. Her face was green.

The cart suddenly came to a halt, and Brandi practically threw herself off. Laughing, I stumbled off as well, ignoring the excessive shaking of my legs.

"This one belongs to a Miss Sheffield," The goblin spoke, walking over and unlocking a giant door. He produced a small bag from somewhere within his uniform.

"What's this for?" I ask, holding it up.

"To keep your money in," he replied shortly, already walking back to the cart.

Stepping inside the room, I look around before finally seeing a barely noticeable pile of coins. Stepping over to it, I place it all in the bag, not even filling it halfway.

"Well," I start as I walk out of the room, the goblin stepping back over to lock it back. "I'm not quite sure how much their money equals up to be, but it doesn't seem like much."

Brandi snatched the bag away and looked inside. "Be grateful Dumbledore even gave us this."

"Yeah, yeah." I focused on the goblin. "Hey, Moghaw. What does this currency translate to?"

He gave me a long look, face expressionless. "The gold ones are Galleons, the silver ones are Sickles, and the bronze ones are Knuts."

"Seventeen Sickles equal one Galleon, and twenty-nine Knuts equal a Sickle."

Glancing to Brandi, I see that she was mentally writing this down. Good, I could just ask her to sort out the whole money ordeal, because I was lost.

Moghaw was back on the cart, so we followed him. Seconds later, the cart moved again at it's fast pace.

"Hey!" Brandi screamed at the goblin. "Can you make this thing go slower? Else you're going to be smelling vomit until you retire this cart!"

He didn't even look at her as he answered. "It's only got one speed."

I could hear her grunt in irritation and I let out a laugh.

Minutes later we arrived at a new vault. I decided to stay on the cart and wait for her to finish up with business. The goblin produced a similar bag for her, and she left shortly to fill up her bag.

When she returned, I frowned as I noticed her bag was much fuller than my own. In fact, it was full to bursting.

"Hey, how come you have more?" I ask curiously.

She looks at me with a blank, if not a little guilty, look. "I guess my mum actually doesn't hate me. She decided to be nice for once and put a little extra in my account."

We both shared similar looks before shrugging.

* * *

"Well," I spoke as we left Gringotts, having quickly exchanged our money for a few extra coins. "At least now we can start shopping."

I was eager to see more of this Diagon Alley. We'd only stopped by the bank, and I was already fascinated with everything. I couldn't imagine what else we might see.

"We should go there first," Brandi pointed to a small little store with a sign on the front reading Madam Malkin's Robes for All Occasions.

Nodding, we headed into the store.

Madam Malkin was short and stocky, and she flashed in front of us the moment we walked in.

"Hogwarts too?" She asked with a smile. "We've had the lot in here- they've been coming and going."

When we nodded an affirmative, she directed us to the back where we had to stand on stools and had robes slipped on over our heads.

Madam Malkin began to pin Brandi's robe as another short witch came and pinned my own.

I shifted from foot to foot, uncomfortable with standing still for so long. As we were fitted, I eyed each person in the store.

There wasn't much of anyone here, only a few fellow peers that seemed too tall to be our age. I figured they were here because they outgrew their first robes.

"So," I started, finding it impossible to stay silent for long, "at least tell me something about Hogwarts. I'm dying with anxiety, you know!"

"I'm sure you are. Most Muggleborns don't have friends from wizard families, you know. I should let you find out on your own," my friend replied sarcastically, rolling her eyes. "I guess I could explain the four houses if you want?"

"Houses?"

"Yeah, we're sorted into four different houses, or groups: there's Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, and Slytherin."

"How are we sorted?" I questioned, hoping there wasn't any kind of test.

"My mom swears up and down that we have to grapple with werewolves," she began, "but I do know everyone is sorted by their character. Gryffindors are generally the brave and chivalrous, Ravenclaw is for the intelligent, Slytherin is for the cunning and ambitious, while the Hufflepuff is everything else. In Layman's terms, Gryffindors are idiots, Ravenclaw kids are geniuses, Slytherins are evil, and Hufflepuffs have no personality. That's how most people see it, even if it's not true."

"Whoa." I roll the new knowledge around in my head for a moment before speaking again. "So what house do you think we'll be in?"

"Placement usually runs in the family. My mom was in Slytherin, so it's likely I'll be in Slytherin," I nodded in agreement as she said that. "You…well, you might end up anywhere. Maybe Gryffindor."

"Aw, you think I'm brave?" I fluttered my lashes playfully. She rolled her eyes and chose not to answer.

Brandi was quiet for minute, "I want to be in Ravenclaw. I'd rather be anywhere but Slytherin."

"We're all done here," The two witches announce simultaneously, grinning happily. We collected our robes, and I had Brandi pay the witch with our money.

We had decided to put our money together and let Brandi keep it, as she was the more responsible of us. Plus she knew how to count the money out.

Leaving the store, I spot another place diagonal from us.

"Hey, that one sells parchment and ink! Cool…We should go there too," I drab Brandi along with me and enter the store.

After adding some parchment to our supplies, we went around searching for ink.

"Oh, there's one with specifically blue!" I cheer, grabbing it.

"Purple…" Brandi mutters from nearby, also grabbing and paying for it.

After that, we went to a book store called Flourish and Blotts, which had piles of books, some looking as if they weighed a ton.

The spell books were amazing, and I almost begged Brandi to buy one before she told me that they were for the higher level wizard and witches.

"Fine then," I pouted.

After buying our books, we then left for the Apothecary. The smell was rotten and left a burning sensation up my nose. Brandi sneezed uncontrollably as we walked in.

The items in the shop, however, were fascinating.

There were barrels of a slimy, green substance; claws from some sort of animal were hanging from the ceiling; and I came across strings of fangs. Brandi was poking at something black with the consistency of moldy Jell-o.

"I want that!" I called to my friend, grabbing a single fang and one long string.

"No," she immediately rejected, but eventually gave in from my excessive begging, whining, and puppy dog eyes. I can do that sometimes.

After buying the two small items, in which the shop owner gave us both odd looks, we asked him for the basic supply of potion ingredients.

Leaving the store, I quickly tied the fang onto the string and tied that onto my neck, making a perfect necklace.

"Seriously?" Brandi asked curiously, eyeing the necklace.

"Hey, it looks cool!" I defended, admiring my handiwork.

We then left for the cauldron store, where both Brandi and I had to stop and stare at the golden cauldron.

"We have to buy that," I told her, staring at it in awe.

"We can't, even though it's so…" she reluctantly dragged me away from the beautiful cauldron, redirecting us to one of the simpler ones. "That one was probably cursed to be enchanting. I bet it would melt the first time someone lit a fire under it."

As we left the store, we both took a moment to once more set our eyes on the cauldron, eyeing it with want.

We bought a scale and brass telescope before stopping and looking at our list.

"So…we only have to get our wands and a pet," I informed her, glancing around the street.

"I think the wand place was somewhere around here…" She left off as she glanced around before spotting something. "There!"

I turned and saw that it was a shabby little shop; its gold letters were peeling and almost unreadable. I strained my eyes in hopes of reading the small print.

"Ollivanders…Makers of Fine Wands…since 382 B.C."

Peering into the exhibit window, I see a single wand through the dusty old window, lying on a simple purple cushion.

We both jumped at the small jingle of a bell as we entered the shop.

The hairs on the nape of my neck stood on end as I gazed around. The shop was almost completely empty, save for the odd chairs and hundreds of boxes stacked on top of each other. It was incredibly dark, almost darker than the Apothecary, and very dusty.

"Good afternoon," a wispy voice carried through the room, and I nearly jumped out of my skin.

I swirled and spotted an older man, with wide eyes that seemed to gleam brightly in the room. I coughed into my hand slightly before answering back politely.

"Hello," it came out more awkward than I intended, and I mentally smacked myself.

"Oh, you must be Miss Sheffield. The one behind you is Miss Holland, I presume?" He turned to Brandi, who was now moving to stand next to me.

The man stood there silently for a moment before continuing. "Now, which one of you is first?"

My friend moved for him before I could open my mouth. "I'll go."

"Perfect," He mumbled as he pulled a long tape measurer from within his cloak. "Which is your wand arm?"

I figured he meant writing arm, as Brandi answered back with a simple, "Right."

He lifted her right arm before using the tape measurer to measure in simple places such as her arm length, from her elbow to her wrist, and from her shoulder to the floor, before measuring in more ridiculous places.

He measured around her head, the length of her nostrils, and for the first time I realized that he wasn't the one measuring.

The tape measurer was doing it on its own.

The man- Ollivander- darted over from shelf to shelf, taking down some of the boxes.

"That will do," With that, the tape measurer fell limply to the floor. "Now, Miss Holland, try this. Eleven inches, cherry tree, one unicorn tail hair. Just give it a wave."

Brandi gave it a short flick before it was snatched back by Ollivander.

He grabbed another wand, spouting some other description of it, before handing it to her and snatching it back almost immediately.

"No- here, try this. Ten inches, ash, dragon heart string."

Brandi snatched the wand in irritation and gave it a flick. I felt my eyes widen as green smoke issued from the end, dissipating through the gloomy room.

"Excellent! This one is good for transfiguration. A nice wand, I might say."

He pushed Brandi to the side and pulled me next to him. She looked slightly disgruntled as a large gray stripe of dusk streaked the sleeve of her jumper.

"Right arm," I said as he grabbed the measurer from the floor and repeated the process for me.

As I waited, he flitted around and grabbed more boxes from the piles.

"That's good." The measurer dropped once more, and I flinched to find Ollivander's face inches before my own. "Try this, nine point five inches, oak, veela hair."

I gave it a short flick, but stopped as one of the boxes flew from a large stack, smacking against the opposite wall.

"Is that supposed to happen?" I asked wearily as the man snatched the wand from my hand.

"Oh, it's quite all right," He spoke, grabbing another wand and thrusting it into my hand.

"Nine inch, willow, phoenix tail feather."

I felt an odd sensation of warm light the ends of my fingers as I held the wand, and I watched in awe as I flicked it and red fireworks burst from the end.

"Oh my, and after just the first try! Marvelous! This wand is wonderful for defensive purposes and curses. A good wand."

I fingered the wand carefully, a broad smile lighting my face.

Brandi paid for the wands quickly and we left the place.

"We should probably get a pet," she said, leading me across the street to a place entitled Eeylops Owl Emporium.

"Owls?" I questioned, looking to her.

"We can only have an owl, cat, or toad. I would die before either of us got a toad, you surely wouldn't want a cat, so owl is the only option for you. I, however, want a cat; I'll stop by and pick one out after we finish here."

I nodded sagely as we entered the store.

Half an hour later, I left satisfied.

My cage held a large bird, male, and its feathers were of a white-blue mix. I thought he was pretty.

We stopped in an adjacent pet store, this one housing all manner of furry creatures. Brandi strode past every pen until she came to one with a rainbow array of cats. Immediately, she picked up a kitten enchanted to be the color of violets. A purple cat; I don't think I've ever seen her so happy.

Brandi's kitten slept the entire way back to the pub, while my owl's eyes watched everything with rapt fascination.

We encountered a small problem as we stood in front of the brick wall, the entrance to Diagon Alley.

"How do we get out?" I questioned, grabbing my wand and tapping randomly on some bricks.

"I'm not sure." I turned to gape at my friend, who stared back in confusion. "What?"

"_The_ Brandi," I begin. "not knowing something?"

She hit me playfully before joining me in tapping the wall. The fellow wizards and witches watched us with odd looks as we tapped randomly before finally, the wall opened form the center and formed the large archway.

"I'm not sure what we did, but at least it opened," I muttered to her, stepping through the arch as it closed behind us.

We entered the pub, which was almost entirely empty by now, and left through the front door.

As we walked all the way to the train station and rode the train back, we were met with odd looks and gawking from the passersby. We chose to ignore them, seeing as we couldn't blame them.

We did look odd with our tons of strangely shaped packages, my owl, and a purple kitten.

We ended up separating a mile from each other's house, to which I ran the rest of the way home. I cheered as I saw that my dad and sister were still not home.

Quickly unlocking the door and running upstairs to my room, I hid everything away except my owl, which I had affectionately named Sora.

Gazing at the beautiful owl, I wondered how to explain him to my dad. A strange quirk of the boarding school?

* * *

As a month passed, I decided that it was definitely not a fun month.

The first thing I'd had to do was fill my dad in on why there was an owl in my room. Before they arrived home, I'd had a few minutes to think of a quick lie to tell them. Eventually, I decided to say that I had been searching the internet when I saw that owls were coming back in style.

I said that I'd had an odd fixation on old cultures and the like lately, and I wanted to experience it first hand. Therefore, I bought an owl and decided to use him to deliver mail.

I was surprised that I had come up with the strange lie so quickly, though I was more surprised when he bought it.

He, of course, was not all for it at first, but after explaining the uses it had, such as it was an educational experience, he eventually caved.

My dad was a sucker.

I had read almost every book by the end of the month, hanging on to every word. I was simply fascinated with the way things worked in Hogwarts, and found the book called _Hogwarts, A History_ very informative.

I learned mostly everything Brandi refused to tell me about Hogwarts from the book.

My dad, though, had become more agitating as the days passed by, fretting over everything.

"Are you sure you want to go to a boarding school? And so far away? We won't be able to visit, you know. Won't you be lonely? What if someone tries to kidnap you?"

One-sided conversations such as these became a normal occurrence, and I could literally feel my patience thinning.

On August thirty-first, I excitedly ran down the stairs.

"Dad, don't forget that you need to take me to King's Cross station tomorrow," I called to him as I grabbed a soda from the fridge.

He muttered something similar to 'Uh-huh', never taking his eyes from the television. Sighing, I knew that I would have to remind him later tonight while he wasn't indulging in the wonders of TV.

I woke at roughly five o'clock the next morning, like I do every other morning. Looking around, I figured I might as well get my things packed, which I had decided to leave until the last minute.

Tossing everything in a trunk, then checking my list to make sure everything was in there, I threw on an old pair of cargo pants, a sleeve-less white shirt, and a black pair of knee-length, black combat boots.

I then proceeded to pace my room, waiting for my dad to get up, occasionally stopping to play with Sora.

Five hours later, I had had enough and threw myself on my dad's bed, successfully waking him up. I dragged my trunk down the stairs and tossed it into the trunk of my dad's car.

It took roughly ten minutes to make it to King's Cross, where my dad helped me dump my trunk onto one of the carts.

"Well, I can go the rest of the way by myself," I told him, knowing Brandi was waiting for me on the inside.

"Are you sure?" He asked hesitantly. "I mean I could go with you and wait. Don't you want us to see you off?"

I hugged him quickly before grabbing my cart.

"Sorry Daddy, but, um… you know, I might cry and talk myself out of leaving or something if you're there," I quickly lied, glancing at the entrance to the station.

He looked at me in understanding, making me flinch. "Okay then, I guess we'll see you when your year is over."

He gave me another quick bear hug, which I had to pry myself out of due to the lack of air.

"I'll be fine, Dad," I assured him, already starting to walk off, Sora's cage in hand.

"Bye!" He waved spastically, eyes tearing up. I felt bad for lying to him about everything, but I knew I had to. He wouldn't believe me if I tried to explain everything.

I jogged into the station with my luggage, searching for my friend's familiar face.

"You might cry and talk yourself out of it?" A voice asked from behind me.

I turned around to see Brandi, her own luggage next to her, looking very amused. She, of course, looked as impeccably clean as usual in her jeans, black sweater, and black trainers.

"You heard that?" I chuckled slightly. My dad was a sucker when it came to lies. He believed everything.

"Yeah," she said, grunting as I threw my own luggage to her. Taking out my ticket, I read the details silently.

"So we need to find Platform 9 ¾?" I asked, already beginning to walk and count off platforms.

She just mumbled in affirmative as I scanned the platform signs silently.

One…Two…Three…

"This is heavy," she complained, obviously wanting me to take some of it.

"Take it like a man," I muttered.

Four…Five…Six…Seven…

"In case you haven't noticed, I'm not a man."

Eight…Nine…Ten?

"Hey Brandi?" I called to her, staring at the signs.

"What?" She muttered distractedly, groaning in exhaustion as she dragged our heavy luggage behind her.

"There's no Platform 9 ¾."

"Huh?" She blinked, turning to face the signs which I was now pointing at. "Eight, Nine…Ten?"

We turned simultaneously and gave each other questioning looks.

"What now?" She asked, glaring at the spot between nine and ten, as if that would make it suddenly appear. I smirked at her rare act of immaturity.

"I guess we could always just observe and see if anyone does any kind of hocus pocus magic trick."

And so we waited. We stood off to the side, eyeing anybody that looked suspicious. Eventually, I spotted a rather peculiar person.

A girl, maybe a year or two older than myself, was bobbing her head back and forth, as if watching for any spectators. I hit Brandi's arm to get her attention, ignoring her small hiss of pain and never taking my eyes from the girl.

She was now darting towards platform ten, but just as I suspected something was going to happen, a random passerby walked in front of me, blocking my view.

Swearing, I saw that Brandi had apparently missed it as well, as she had jumped up in frustration, trying to crane her neck and see.

Glancing around, I'm surprised to see that the girl is nowhere in sight. Blinking, I realize that she had simply just disappeared.

"Okay, something is definitely going on over there," I state, jumping up as well and following behind my friend. We inspected the area for several minutes before finally giving up.

"We have less than ten minutes to get on that stupid train!" Brandi growled as she glanced at her watch.

Upset, I leaned back against the ticket inspector's stand between the two platforms, only to meet air. A strange, tense feeling seized my stomach, and I felt it tie itself in knots.

For a second, all was blurry as I landed roughly on the ground, before I managed to clear my vision and inspect my surroundings.

I seemed to be in a platform, though as I spotted a sign not far away, my suspicions were confirmed.

I was in Platform 9 ¾.

"Peyton!"

Glancing behind me, I saw a surprised Brandi standing there with one foot in front of her as if she had rushed through, the cart of luggage held tightly in her hand.

"I can't believe I forgot we have to go through the wall…" Brandi mumbled to herself.

"Well," I start, picking myself from the ground. "It seems we've found our platform."

* * *

**Brandi**

The train doors started to close, and I grabbed Peyton as I rushed to jump on. Throwing our bags off of our cart and carrying them, we boarded the train a mere second before the door shut.

We stumbled as the train moved, spending a few minutes passing several full compartments, attempting to find a spot to sit.

Looking ahead as my bird-brained friend ogled everything, I spotted an almost empty car. Dragging her along, I almost collided with a young redheaded boy who had an odd black smudge on his nose, obviously having the same idea as me.

As we eyed each other, I shoved past him and opened the door first.

"Mind if we sit here?" the redhead asked before I could even open my mouth. Little fucker. "All of the other seats are full."

The boy, who I instantly recognized as Harry Potter, if the scar on his forehead wasn't evidence enough, shrugged uncaringly.

Peyton was the first to clamor in after the redhead, immediately introducing herself.

"I'm Peyton Sheffield, nice to meet you."

"I'm Harry…Potter," He seemed hesitant to give his last name, which I couldn't blame him for. I knew of him thanks to the wizard newspaper my mum buys, but it was obvious by some of the comments that he was regarded as a hero. He looked ordinary enough to me; nothing like the hero that vanquished The Dark Lord.

The compartment door opened, and two identical redheads sauntered in. I felt like an idiot for not noticing sooner; these were Weasley's, of course. Dirty, poor, and famously red-headed, they were not hard to spot.

"Hey Ron."

Peyton eyed them with a rapt fascination, obviously awed at seeing twins. Ah, how easily she's amused.

"Listen, we're going down the middle of the train- Lee Jordan's got a giant tarantula down there," one of the twins remark.

A tarantula? I made a mental note not to go down the middle of the train. Bugs, toads…tarantulas; not my thing. I could feel Peyton perk up from beside me however, and I inwardly groaned.

"Tarantula?" She asked eagerly, leaning forward in anticipation.

"Hm?" They seemed to notice her for the first time. "Yep, and he's really big."

"I wanna come!" She jumped up with a lopsided grin and nearly leaped over my lap to get out. The twins' smile broadened at the new companion.

Before leaving, the other one spoke. "Harry, did we introduce ourselves? Fred and George Weasley. And this is Ron, our brother. See you later then."

"Bye," Both Ron and Harry supplied before the twins slid out of the compartment, Peyton in tow. I could hear all three of their voices as they walked off, chatting excitedly.

I looked over to see Ron questioning Harry on his scar, and turned away in irritation. The buffoon was tactless.

Glancing across the redhead and out the window, I wondered how long this ride would last.


	3. The Hat Which Controls Our Fate

**For Want of a Nail**  
**(** a harry potter fanfiction**)**

x o x o  
_Harry Potter © J.K. Rowling_  
_For Want of a Nail © The Eccentric Otaku_  
x o x o

**C.H.A.P.T.E.R. T.H.R.E.E.**  
_"__The Hat Which Controls Our Fate"_

**Peyton**

"Brandi!" I called as I ran back into the compartment, ignoring the fact that I seemed to have interrupted a conversation between the other two boys.

"Well, you sure didn't take long. Lost interest?" she drawled, uninterested.

"No," I pouted at the insinuation. "Eventually the tarantula got loose. We haven't been able to find it yet, so I came to tell you not to come out- Where did all of those come from?"

Brandi didn't say anything about the tarantula, but she lifted her feet from the floor and hugged them to her chest. She's such a chicken.

I eyed the piles of candy that sat in one of the empty seats.

One boy- Harry, I remembered, was the one who answered. "I bought them a while ago from a woman selling sweets. Would you like one?"

I watched him with wide eyes, as if asking for permission. When he nodded once again in confirmation, I scooted in next to him and picked up a bag of what looked like chocolate frogs.

I thanked him before properly introducing myself to the redhead.

"Oh yeah, I'm Peyton Sheffield, nice to meet you." It came out slightly muffled as I tore the bag of chocolate frogs with my teeth.

"Ron Weasley," he said in turn.

I took out one of the chocolate frogs and watched it carefully, as if waiting for it to move. "It this…" I flushed a little as I hesitated, thinking it was a stupid question. "Is this a real frog?"

I glared at Brandi as she snorted. Harry smiled from next to me. "Actually, I asked the same thing just a moment ago. It's not."

A card fell from the package and into my lap. "What's this?"

Ron took the privilege of answering. "I guess you're new to magic, too. Chocolate frogs have cards inside of them of famous witches and wizards. Who have you got?"

Turning the card over, I scanned the card and saw an old man with gray hair, a mustache, and a nice little beard.

"Um…the bottom says Claudius Ptolemaeus."

"You've got Ptolemy? Lucky! That's one of the only two I haven't got," I looked over to see the redhead watching me in envy.

"Do you want it?" I asked, not really caring much for it. I wasn't much of a collector.

"You mean it? Thanks!" He reached over to snatch it happily.

"No prob- Whoa!" I flinched and dropped the card as the old man walked off of the card and disappeared.

Everyone turned to look at me after my outburst.

"Did you see that?" I point eagerly, eyes flickering to each occupant. "He moved! The old man moved!"

Ron laughed and grabbed the card from the floor, stashing it away safely inside of his jacket and ignoring my indignant look.

"Don't worry," Harry assured with a smile. "I also reacted like that."

"Just not as loud," Brandi piped up, smirking. I stuck my tongue out at her.

I ate my chocolate frog, which was surprisingly good, though I almost choked on it as it moved within my mouth. The four of us spent a long time chatting happily, guessing as to what Hogwarts might be like. Or, Harry, Ron and I did. Brandi sat there silently, listening in at times and dozing off at others.

I found that I liked the two boys. Ron could be a bit tactless at times and Harry surprisingly clueless about some things, but all together they seemed pretty cool.

It was nice to have more than one friend.

After a while, a knock sounded on the compartment door and it slid open, revealing a round-faced boy with tears in his eyes.

"Sorry," his voice was timid and sad, "but have you seen a toad at all?"

As we simultaneously shook our heads, he let out a long wail. "I've lost him! He keeps getting away from me!"

Feeling sorry for the boy, Harry spoke up. "I'm sure you'll find him…"

"Yes," He said, though he didn't sound convinced. "Well, if you see him…"

He left before we could say anything more.

"If I even saw a toad, I'd probably chuck it out the window. I hate the little buggers," Brandi said, cringing a little. "No offense to the boy or anything."

"Don't know why he's so bothered," Ron spoke up. "If I'd brought a toad, I'd lose it as quick as I could. Mind you, I've brought Scabbers, so I can't talk."

I noticed the fat rat sleeping in Ron's lap for the first time.

"He might've died and you wouldn't know the difference," He said in disgust. "I tried to turn him yellow yesterday, you know, to make him more interesting. The spell didn't work though. I'll show you, look…"

I straightened up and focused on the boy, wanting to see my first bit of magic- sans Dumbledore and the men in the alley.

The redhead rummaged around in his trunk for a moment before bringing out a rather worn out wand. It was battered, chipped, and some kind of hair seemed to be sticking out from the end. I could see that Brandi was nearly about to laugh, but I guess she thought the better of it.

"Unicorn hair's nearly poking out. Anyway-"

Just as he was about to begin, the compartment door slid open once more. It was the round-faced boy from before, but this time there was a girl with him. I blinked as I noticed she was already in her Hogwarts robes.

"Has anyone seen a toad? Neville's lost one," Her voice came out as bossy and intelligent. She sounded like Brandi. These two would either make great friends, or there would be blood everywhere; knowing my friend, it was probably safer to bet on the latter.

"We already told him that we haven't seen it," I told her, only to find that she wasn't even listening. She was now turned to Ron, who still had his wand in hand.

"Oh, are you doing magic? Let's see it then."

She scooted in next to Brandi, who shot an irritated glare at the girl, and Ron gaped.

"Er- all right."

He cleared his throat loudly, in which I took the time to get situated and focused, before chanting.

"_Sunshine, daisies, butter mellow, Turn this stupid, fat rat yellow."_

He waved his wand dramatically, but nothing changed. I tried to hide my snort in the uncomfortable silence.

"Are you sure that's a real spell?" the girl asked in a rather 'high and mighty' tone. "Well, it's not very good, is it? I've tried a few simple spells just for practice and it's all worked for me." I frowned at this because, though I had tried, I hadn't gotten any spells to work.

"Nobody in my family's magic at all, it was ever such a surprise when I got my letter, but I was ever so pleased, of course, I mean, it's the very best school of witchcraft there is, I've heard- I've learned all our course books by heart, of course, I just hope it will be enough- I'm Hermione Granger, by the way, who are you?"

The girl had spoken extremely quickly, and by the end my head was turning as I attempted to keep up.

I looked at the others, and was relieved to see that the others hadn't appeared to learn all of the course books by heart either.

"I'm Ron Weasley," He muttered.

"Peyton Sheffield," I piped up.

"Brandi Holland, at you service, but not really," she said, a sour look on her face.

"Harry Potter."

"Are you really?" said Hermione. "I know all about you, of course- I got a few extra books for background reading, and you're in _Modern Magical History_ and _The Rise and Fall of the Dark Arts_ and _Great Wizarding Events in the Twentieth Century._"

"Am I?" Harry asked dazedly.

"Is he?" I questioned, looking to Brandi. She nodded.

"Goodness, didn't you know, I'd have found out everything I could if it was me," Hermione said, speaking quickly again. "Do either of you know what house you'll be in? I've been asking around, and I hope I'm in Gryffindor, it sounds by far the best; I hear Dumbledore himself was in it, but I suppose Ravenclaw wouldn't be too bad. .. Anyway, we'd better go and look for Neville's toad. You four had better change, you know, I expect we'll be there soon."

Then she left, taking Neville with her.

"Whatever house I'm in, I hope she's not in it," Ron threw his wand back into his trunk and slung himself down. "Stupid spell- George gave it to me, bet he knew it was a dud."

"What house are your brothers in?" questioned Harry.

"Gryffindor," Ron supplied gloomily. "Mom and Dad were in it, too. I don't know what they'll say if I'm not. I don't suppose Ravenclaw _would_ be too bad, but imagine if they put me in Slytherin."

I glanced to Brandi to see if she would make any comment, but she simply sat there emotionless.

"That's the house Vol-, I mean, You-Know-Who was in?"

"Yeah," Ron slumped back in his seat, staring sadly out the window.

"Wait, I'm lost," I inputted. "Who are we talking about?"

All the occupants turned to look at me.

"You-Know-Who," Ron informed.

"No, I don't. Otherwise I wouldn't be asking." Brandi chuckled from in front of me, attempting to hide her laughs.

"Wait, you don't know who You-Know-Who is?" His eyes widened in disbelief, and I puffed angrily.

"No, like I've been saying, I don't know who the bloody hell you're talking about!"

"Voldemort," Harry supplied next to me, ignoring Ron's flinch.

"Oh," I said.

"Wait, so you finally get it when you hear his name?" Ron asked, brows crinkling in confusion.

"Well, how was I supposed to know who you were talking about when you said You-Know-Who? I know lots of people. It could have been my dad, or my sister, or my grandma, or my-"

"We get it," Harry smiled in amusement.

"Yeah, well, you could have meant anyone," I finished dumbly, puffing out my cheeks and pouting.

"Quit being a baby," Brandi scolded me, kicking my leg. I kicked her back. It evolved into an all-out, no-bars kick war. I won.

"So," Harry started, attempting to find another topic, "what do your oldest brothers do now that they've left, anyway?"

"Charlie's in Romania studying dragons-"

"Real dragons?" I interrupt, gaining another kick from my best friend.

"Yeah, real dragons, and Bill's in Africa doing something for Gringotts," He finished. "Did you hear about Gringotts? It's been all over the _Daily Prophet_, but I don't suppose you get that with the Muggles- someone tried to rob a high security vault."

Harry and I stared, though Brandi remained uninterested. I figured she got this _Daily Prophet_, seeing as her mom probably liked to stay informed on the wizarding news. I wouldn't know. Her mom is evil.

"Really?" Harry asked. "What happened to them?"

"Nothing, that's why it's such big news, they haven't been caught. My dad says it must have been a powerful Dark wizard to get round Gringotts, but they don't think they took anything, that's what's odd. 'Course everyone gets scared when something like this happens in case You-Know-Who's behind it."

The compartment drifted into silence as I pondered over what I knew about this Voldemort. I eventually heard about why everyone was so concerned with Harry Potter, thanks to my books, and also learned most of why he was so feared.

It was frightening, all that this fellow had done. I was glad he was dead and gone.

"What's your Quidditch team?" Ron suddenly asked.

"Er-" Harry began. "I don't know any."

"What!" Ron looked shocked. "Oh, you wait, it's the best game in the world-"

He began to explain in detail all about this Quidditch. The position, rules, the balls. He'd also set off describing the famous games he'd been to with his brothers. I eventually tuned him out, growing bored.

"Have you played it before?" Ron asked. He looked at Brandi pointedly, as she was the only one with knowledge of the magical community.

"A few times," she replied. "Mostly when my mom was, uh, visiting with friends. I've been to a few tournaments before, though. All in good fun. I root for the German Ghouls, of course."

Quidditch didn't seem like a game for me. There was no way you could get me to jump on a broom and float in the sky over twenty feet in the air. Hell no.

After a while, the compartment door slid open once again, but this time three unfamiliar boys entered.

I ignored the small inhalation of air that came from Brandi, though I took a moment to wonder whether she knew any of them or not, and eyed them.

"Is it true?" Asked the shortest one, appearing to be the leader. The other two hung behind the boy like grunts and simply watched. "They're saying all down the train that Harry Potter's in this compartment. So it's you, is it?"

I didn't like this boy. His voice came out snooty and rude, and he had the air of someone who thought he was better than everyone else.

"Yes," Harry answered, seemingly staring at the goons behind the rude boy. He looked frightened, though I couldn't blame him.

They towered over me, which automatically sent a message to my brain to stay away.

"Oh, this is Crabbe and this is Goyle," They had stupid names too. "And my name is Malfoy. Draco Malfoy.

Bond. James Bond.

Both Ron and I hid our snickers, whether for the same reason or not, though the boy had apparently heard them anyway.

He switched his attention to Ron first.

"Think my name is funny, do you? No need to ask who you are. My father told me all the Weasley's have red hair, freckles, and more children than they can afford."

This instantly shut Ron up, and his face turned the color of his hair. I wasn't sure if he was angry, embarrassed, or both.

I felt a surge of anger run through me as this Malfoy talked bad about my newfound Weasley friends.

"And you," He turned to me now, and I felt satisfied as I thought he couldn't have anything against me. "Muggle born, you must be. Trash, if anything."

I growled at the insult, but he had already moved on to Brandi. I noticed his eyes widen for a moment before resuming to normal.

They both glared at each other, almost as if competing in a staring competition. I wondered if he somehow new my friend, judging by the way he was glaring at her.

"Holland," He spat her name. "I see you've made your way to Hogwarts."

Brandi eyed him for another moment before closing her eyes, successfully making herself appear nonchalant. "Malfoy. Seems I have."

The Malfoy boy sneered at her. "How's your dear old mum?"

"She's fine, thanks," Brandi said, eyeing him coolly. She smiled. "How's Aunty Bella? Good, I hope. Not, uh, causing any more trouble, is she? I heard that last thing got a bit _nasty_ for her."

This obviously irritated the little nuisance, which brought my spirits up. As he swirled away from her, we secretly bumped fists in a silent cheer.

"Anyway," He continued, standing back before Harry. "You'll soon find out some wizarding families are much better than others, Potter. You don't want to go making friends with the wrong sort. I can help you there."

As he held his hand out in a handshake, I smiled as Harry didn't reach out to take it.

"I think I can tell who the wrong sort are for myself, thanks," He remarked casually, causing a pink tinge to appear on Malfoy's pale cheeks.

I snickered loudly, not even bothering to hide it, and noticed that even Brandi smirked at Malfoy's embarrassment.

"I'd be careful if I were you, Potter," He muttered to Harry darkly. "Unless you're a bit more polite, you'll go the same way as your parents. They didn't know what was good for them either. You hang around with riffraff like the Weasley's, Mudbloods, that thing," -he pointed at Brandi, who gracefully lifted her middle finger in an unladylike gesture- "and that big bloke Hagrid and it'll rub off on you."

I blinked as I realized he must have meant me when he said 'Mudblood', unfamiliar with than term.

Harry, Ron, and surprisingly Brandi both shot up from their seats as I stayed in mine, muddling over the strange word.

"Say that again," Ron gritted through his teeth, face even redder than before.

"Get out of here you little shit or I'll knock your teeth out!" Brandi snapped. She didn't look the least bit intimidated by Malfoy's two thugs, unlike Harry and Ron. With that tone, I was almost willing to bet that she could take all three of them on. And win.

"Oh," Malfoy sneered. "You're going to fight us, are you?"

"Unless you get out now," Harry attempted to sound forceful, appearing brave in front of the two giant goons.

I stayed silent in the background, hoping it didn't come to a fight. In a fist fight, I might have a chance, but I hadn't managed to get a single spell to work since I found out about magic.

I was virtually useless against these punks, and that irritated me.

Malfoy didn't leave. "But we don't feel like leaving, do we boys? We seem to have eaten all of our food, and you still seem to have some."

As soon as he finished, the buffoon I thought was called Goyle reached towards the Chocolate Frogs. They were closer to Ron, who had attempted to jump for them and snatch them up first.

A loud screech came from Goyle, who had begun to hold one of his fingers, where Scabbers was hanging from precariously.

Everyone backed away as he begun to swirl around, roughly throwing his hand around as he tried to get the rat off. Eventually the rat lost his grip and fell off, smacking against our window roughly.

The three boys were gone instantly, leaving a quiet silence in their wake.

"Well…" I began hesitantly. "That was…interesting."

They had just enough time to crack a smile before Hermione Granger reappeared.

"What has been going on?" I turned to survey the damage. Sweets were scattered across the floor, and Ron was currently picking up Scabbers.

"I think he's been knocked out," He said. He squinted his eyes and studied the rat carefully. "No- I don't believe it! He's gone back to sleep."

I snorted and shared a look with Brandi. She laughed. Not a snort, but an actual laugh. She's making progress!

"Have you met that rude little twerp, Harry?" I asked curiously, voice lacing with disdain.

Harry explained that he had met him at Diagon Alley and told us the story.

"I've heard of his family," Ron muttered. "They were some of the first to come back to our side after You-Know-Who," I decided to ignore the fact that he was calling Voldemort that again, "disappeared. Said they'd been bewitched. My dad doesn't believe it though. He says Malfoy's father didn't need an excuse to go over to the Dark Side."

"Your dad's certainly got that right. Old Lucious Malfoy is a right git," Brandi said disdainfully.

Ron suddenly turned to Hermione, who had been listening raptly. "Can we help you with something?"

"You'd better hurry up and get your robes on," She told us. "I've just been up to the front to ask the conductor, and he says we're nearly there. You haven't been fighting, have you? You'll be in trouble before we even get there!"

Ron scowled in her direction. "Scabbers had been fighting, not us. Now leave us in peace so we can change."

Hermione sniffed at his rude tone. "Alright. I only came in here because people outside are behaving very childishly, racing up and down the corridors."

She then turned to him and snorted. "And you've got dirt on your nose, by the way."

Ron turned and glared at her as she left, and I noticed the smudge of dirt on his face for the first time.

I turned to glance at the landscape outside. I realized that it was getting late, and the sky was darkening.

Brandi and I left the compartment to go change, leaving the boys to themselves. After a moment, waiting to make sure they had finished up, we re-entered out compartment.

Before we could speak, however, a loud voice resonated throughout the train.

"We will be reaching Hogwarts in five minutes' time. Please leave your luggage on the train, it will be taken to the school separately."

For the first time in a while, I remembered exactly where we were going and felt a lurch in my stomach. My nerved were starting to act up one again.

Harry, Ron, and I shared nervous looks before shoving the remaining snacks in our pockets and walking out into the corridor. We were met with a train full of other kids.

The train slowly descended in speed before eventually coming to a full stop. Kids filed out of the train and onto a dingy little platform.

The cold air sent a shiver down my spine, not to mention the darkness was a little frightening.

A light sprang before us, bobbing slightly as we heard loud footsteps. Then, a voice called out to us, "Firs' years! Firs' years over here! All right there Harry?"

I blinked as a giant man came into view, making me feel even smaller than usual, then blinked once more as I realized he knew Harry.

Before I could even turn to look at him or he had the chance to answer, the giant man had begun speaking once more.

"C'mon and follow me- any more firs' years? Mind yer step now! Firs' years follow me!"

I slipped and stumbled into Brandi as we followed the man down a narrow slope. It was pitch black on all sides of the slope, so I held fast to my friend's robe, walking close enough to cause her to trip a few times.

It stayed pretty quiet, everyone soaking in their own nerves and excitement. Neville sniffed a few times, obviously still distraught over his missing toad.

"Yeh'll get yer firs' sight o' Hogwarts in a sec, jus' round this bend here."

Hearing Hagrid's booming voice, I looked in the direction he was pointing, which I considered it a miracle to be able to see.

Hearing a loud "Oooh" from the kids ahead of me, I hurried it along, pulling Brandi behind me and ignoring her grunts of protest.

The narrow bend had opened up finally, showing a beautiful scene. Sitting immediately before us was the edge of a sparkling black lake.

Looking higher up, near the top of a high mountain, I caught my first glimpse of Hogwarts.

It was huge, immensely so, and consisted of several towers and turrets. It was absolutely entrancing.

"No more'n four to a boat!" Hagrid called, and I noticed several boats situated on the bank of the lake.

Deciding that I wanted to sit with the only ones I knew, I quickly followed behind Harry and Ron, ignoring the fact that Hermione seemed to have been thinking the same thing.

It took us a moment to get in and comfortable, as the boats kept rocking almost to the point of knocking us out. Sitting closer to my best friend, I observed Hagrid in his boat all alone.

"Everyone in?" He shouted, checking to make sure. "Right then- FORWARD!"

I "Oooh"ed to myself as the boats starting gliding across the lake by themselves. The tower of Hogwarts grew closer and closer as we crept along.

"Heads down!" Hagrid yelled from in front of us as a few boats had already reached the cliff. They were forced to pull their heads down as they were carried through an opening in the cliff, covered with a cloak of ivy.

As we were carried through a long tunnel, I wondered if we were underneath the castle. Before long we reached a sort of harbor underneath the ground, where we stumbled unsteadily out and onto rocks and pebbles.

"Oy, you there! Is this your toad?" Hagrid seemed to be asking each person as they left their boats. A joyous cry came from Neville.

"Trevor!" He cried, holding the toad to him preciously.

We followed Hagrid as he led us through a passageway, eventually finding our way out and into the shadow of the castle.

Giggling nervously as I studied the giant castle, I stuck myself to Brandi and followed her up a flight of stone stairs. She tried her best to shake me off, but she was sorely disappointed.

A crowd began to form around huge wooden doors, which Hagrid passed by us and stood in front of.

"Everyone here? You there, still got yer toad?" With that last question, he knocked solidly on the huge doors a total of three times.

Immediately after, as if summoned by a secret code, the door swung open and revealed a tall, black-haired witch in a nice shade of green robes. She looked like the stern, no-nonsense kind of woman. Sort of like I imagined Brandi would be fifty years from now…

"The firs' years, Professor McGonagall," Hagrid stated.

"Thank you, Hagrid. I will take them from here."

After that, she pulled the doors open wide and let us through. We walked into what I figured to be an entrance hall, which was vast.

The walls were made of stone, and the torches succeeded in making it look like an old castle from the medieval days. For all my knowledge, it probably was.

Following Professor McGonagall, I heard hundreds of voices from a doorway on my right. We were led past it, however, and shown into a much smaller and empty chamber of the hallway.

We all gathered in, and ended up crowding together and standing far too close to each other. I danced from foot to foot nervously.

"Welcome to Hogwarts," Professor McGonagall spoke up. "The start-of-term banquet-" I nearly choked at the idea of food, but settled for grinning stupidly. "Will begin shortly, but before you take your seats in the Great Hall, you will be sorted into your houses.

"The Sorting is a very important ceremony because, while you are here, your house will be something like your family within Hogwarts. You will have classes with the rest of your house, sleep in your house dormitory, and spend free time in your house common room."

I groaned nervously, hoping I didn't end up in a house I wouldn't like.

"The four houses are called Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, and Slytherin. Each house has its own noble history and each has produced outstanding witches and wizards. While you are at Hogwarts, your triumphs will earn your house points, while any rule-breaking will cost you house points.

"At the end of the year, the house with the most points is awarded the house cup, a great honor. I hope each of you will be a credit to whichever house becomes yours.

"The Sorting Ceremony will take place in a few minutes in front of the rest of the school. I suggest you all smarten yourselves up as much as you can while you are waiting."

I noticed that her eyes lingered on a few who weren't very tidy. Yep, definitely the older version of Brandi.

"I shall return when we are ready for you, please wait quietly." With that, she left.

I swallowed and kept switching feet, suddenly feeling the urge to go to the bathroom. Darn my nervous bladder.

"How exactly do they sort us into houses?" Harry quietly asked Ron. I listed in with interest.

"Some sort of test, I think. Fred said it hurts a lot, but I think he was joking."

I quickly interrupted. "Well Brandi's mom told her that we'd be grappling with werewolves."

I didn't notice Brandi's smirk as the three of us settled into a nervous silence. I felt my stomach lurch as I realized we would be tested in front of the whole school. I'm really not good in front of large crowds of people.

I didn't know any magic yet. I couldn't even cast a single spell. How was I supposed to pass this test?

My heart began beating painfully as my movements became quicker, hopping feet much faster and more noticeably.

Hermione, who was standing just next to me, wasn't making me feel any better as she rattled off about how many spells she knew and could perform. Show-off.

I almost jumped out of my skin as sudden screams interrupted the almost dead silence. Twisting around, I gasped as dozens of ghosts began to stream through the back wall.

An ugly shade of white and slightly see-through, they were exactly as I imaged a ghost to look like.

They ignored us completely as they sailed through the air, arguing with one another. A little fat ghost was speaking; "Forgive and forget, I say, we ought to give him a second chance-"

"My dear Friar, haven't we given Peeves all the chances he deserves? He gives us all a bad name and you know, he's not even really a ghost- I say, what are you all doing here?"

One of the ghosts finally noticed us. I wasn't surprised when no one answered.

"New students!" The one he called Friar said, smiling happily. "About to be Sorted, I suppose?"

A few students nodded, though no one spoke. The nerves from earlier suddenly doubled as I was reminded once more about this Sorting Ceremony.

A few more ghosts took the time to stop and say something, advertising their own houses, before Professor McGonagall finally reappeared.

"Move along now," she snapped at the ghosts. "The Sorting Ceremony is about to start."

One by one, they began to disperse, flying off into separate walls.

"Now," The professor remarked, gaining everyone's attention, "form a line, please, and follow me."

Walking with a slight jump to my step, I jerked behind Brandi and followed her through the hall and then through a pair of double doors, which led us into the Great Hall.

It was lighted with thousands of candles that hung in midair over four long tables. The tables had lots of empty goblets and plates. Every eye in the room, which seemed to be millions, turned to us as we entered, giving me a renewed sense of desperation.

As Professor McGonagall led us up to where the teachers' table seemed to be, I diverted my head so that I could look upwards. Instead of a ceiling, there seemed to be nothing but a beautiful sky lit with bright stars.

From ahead, I heard Hermione whisper, "It's bewitched to look like the sky outside. I read about it in _Hogwarts, A History_."

We lined up along the table and in front of the hundred students, all staring around nervously.

I watched Professor McGonagall's ever movement with rapt attention, preparing to scream if she suddenly brought in any werewolves.

She carried a four-legged stool in front of us first years. On top of that, she placed an old and ratty hat, pointed at the top like a wizard's hat. The hat was patched in places and, all together, looked extremely dirty.

Seeing that everyone was starting at it, as If expecting something, I continued to observe the hat.

For a moment, there was complete silence in the Great Hall. Suddenly, the hat twitched. A rip appeared near the brim and opened wide, looking very much like a mouth.

And then, of all things, the hat began to sing:

"_Oh, you may not think I'm pretty,  
But don't judge on what you see,  
I'll eat myself if you can find  
A smarter hat than me.  
You can keep your bowlers black,  
You top hats sleek and tall,  
For I'm the Hogwarts Sorting Hat  
And I can cap them all.  
There's nothing hidden in your head  
The Sorting Hat can't see,  
So try me on and I will tell you  
Where you ought to be.  
You might belong in Gryffindor,  
Where dwell the brave at heart,  
Their daring, nerve, and chivalry  
Set Gryffindor apart;  
You might belong in Hufflepuff,  
Where they are just and loyal,  
Those patient Hufflepuffs are true  
And unafraid of toil;  
Or yet in wise old Ravenclaw,  
If you've a ready mind,  
Where those of wit and learning,  
Will always find their kind;  
Or perhaps in Slytherin  
You'll make your real friends,  
Those cunning folk use any means  
To achieve their ends.  
So put me on! Don't be afraid!  
And don't get in a flap!  
You're in safe hands (though I have none)  
For I'm a Thinking Cap!"_

The whole hall burst into applause, which I took no time to join in enthusiastically, as the hat finished its song. It bowed to each table before becoming still again.

"So we've just got to try on the hat!" Ron whispered to Harry. "I'll kill Fred; he was going on about wrestling a troll."

I let myself relax as I realized there was no real danger of failing this sort of test.

Professor McGonagall stood in front with a large parchment. "When I call your name, you will put on the hat and sit on the stool to be sorted," She said. "Abbott, Hannah!"

A bright-faced girl with neat, blonde pigtails stumbled out of line and put on the hat, which fell over her eyes, before sitting down. After a moments pause-

"HUFFLEPUFF!" The hat shouted.

The mentioned house clapped and cheered as the girl quickly ran over to their table and sat down proudly.

"Bones, Susan!"

"HUFFLEPUFF!"

"Boot, Terry!"

"RAVENCLAW!"

I yawned as one of the other tables clapped, some standing up and greeting him kindly.

"Brocklehurt, Mandy"

"RAVENCLAW!"

"Brown, Lavender"

"GRYFFINDOR!"

As the first one to go to Gryffindor stood shakily, the house exploded into cheers. I could see Fred and George catcalling and some of the others clapping her on the back.

"Bulstrode, Millicent"

"SLYTHERIN!"

Looking at the far table, I decided they looked rather unpleasant. Most of them sneered at everyone, and I silently hoped Brandi wouldn't be placed there like her mother was.

"Finch-Fletchley, Justin"

"HUFFLEPUFF!"

"Finnigan, Seamus"

"GRYFFINDOR!"

"Granger, Hermione!"

I glanced at her as she eagerly darted to the hat. Brandi would be going soon.

"GRYFFINDOR!" Ron groaned at the hat, and I couldn't help but laugh.

"Holland, Brandi"

I watched as my friend casually walked over to the hat, a tint of hope in her eyes. Crushing my eyes together, I crossed my fingers for my best friend.

-**Brandi**

I'm not a nervous person. Not for exams, not for doctor's visits, not even when going to the Muggle dentist. I don't have a nervous bone in my body. Too long ago I learned that being nervous makes people rash; they don't think. But now my heart beat like a drum, threatening to rip my chest open.

I kept my face as straight as possible as I walked to the rickety stool. I was sort of worried that it wouldn't hold my weight, but as I sat down, it seemed just fine.

McGonagall placed the Sorting Hat carefully on top of my head, and as it came down over my ears, its voice resonated inside my brain.

"Oh, a blackened mind if I've ever seen one; vain, arrogant, and you care only for yourself. My girl, you repress yourself too much."

"No offense, Mr. Hat, but I don't need to hear things I already know," I thought.

"Of course, of course! Oh, you're very smart I see, and don't mind letting people know. You'd fit right in with Ravenclaw, but let's see. You're not very patient; Hufflepuff is definitely out of the question, and you're as cowardly as you are smart. Not a Gryffindor. But Slytherin, you'd do great things with Slytherin's teachings."

"No."

"I don't take requests, my girl. Slytherin is your destiny!"

"Please, no."

The Hat's mouth opened wide above my head and cried out.

**Peyton**

"SLYTHERIN!"

Wincing, I saw her take the hat off and emotionlessly walk to their table. I frowned as I saw Malfoy sneering at her.

"Longbottom, Neville"

"GRYFFINDOR!" The hat had took its time, and when he called it out, the boy had shouted in joy and ran over to the table, hat still in place on his head.

The students and some of the teachers laughed as the boy sheepishly brought it back to the next kid.

Finally, Malfoy's name was called, and he swaggered over in an attempt to look cool. I knew which house he would get into, and I really felt sorry for my friend.

The hat had barely even touched his head when it called out, "SLYTHERIN!"

There weren't many people left now, and we went through several people, none memorable, before finally getting to-

"Potter, Harry!"

The Great Hall burst into whispers as I watched my other friend nervously walk to the stool. I ignored the whispers in favor of watching Harry get sorted.

For a long moment, all was quiet. The hat didn't look as if it was about to speak anytime soon. My feet had started aching by the time it finally spoke.

"GRYFFINDOR!"

The cheering was even louder than ever as everyone on the table jumped up and swatted him on the back happily. I could hear the twins' telltale screams of "We got Potter! We got Potter!"

And now there were four.

"Sheffield, Peyton"

_Oh God,_ I thought, trying not to trip over my feet as I almost darted to the stool. I quickly grabbed the hat, threw it over my head, and sat.

As I looked at the black fabric of the hat, I waited for something to happen.

"Oh," A small voice whispered, seemingly next to my ear. "You have many traits, I see. You're smart, but you don't seek out knowledge like that of a Ravenclaw."

"You are definitely cunning, but you don't have quite enough motivation to fit in with Slytherin. Hm, Hufflepuff or Gryffindor? You would fit in quite well with both. You are very brave, but you are fiercely loyal as well. I wouldn't suppose you have any preference?"

Thinking of my only other friend to be Sorted, Harry, I figured it was better than nothing.

"Friends with the Potter, are you?" And with that last thought, the hat sealed my fate.

"GRYFFINDOR!"


	4. What the Hell Is a Peeves?

**For Want of a Nail**  
**(** a harry potter fanfiction**)**

x o x o  
_Harry Potter © J.K. Rowling_  
_For Want of a Nail © The Eccentric Otaku  
Thanks Brandi for being my awesome editor!_

x o x o

**C.H.A.P.T.E.R. F.O.U.R.**  
_"__What the Hell Is a Peeves?"_

**Peyton**

I sat there, slightly startled at the sudden scream from the hat, and was met with a roar a cheers as I took it off. Every Gryffindor at the table was applauding for me, and I felt a rush of joy. I thought My face felt as if it would split with how large my grin was.

I darted over to the Gryffindor table, tripping over my robe along the way, before taking a seat that was cleared for me. They greeted me with rough slaps on the back and clasping my hand, and I felt at home. It was a good feeling.

I sent a small smile to Harry, Fred, and George before all fell silent, and the sorting continued. Two more fellows were sorted, one into Gryffindor and the other to Ravenclaw, before it was finally Ron's turn. He stepped shakily up to the stool, green faced and looking ready to puke. I laughed a little; it reminded me of Brandi in the Gringotts cart.

There was a moment of dead silence, as the top of his head disappeared underneath the oversized hat. After a moment, a shrill voice interrupted the quiet.

"Gryffindor!"

The roar of cheering, myself included, seemed to cure Ron from whatever sickness he had in his face as he joined us at the table. The green seemed to melt away from his skin.

I frowned as I heard distinct booing from the table underneath the green drapes. Slytherins, I guessed. They sounded like a bunch of assholes. I hoped Brandi wasn't one of the ones booing.

Another fellow was sorted before Professor McGonagall rolled up the parchment of names and removed the stool and hat. My stomach growled as people began to make small talk. The chatter was cut short, though, and everyone turned to the teacher's table.

An old man, who I instantly recognized as Albus Dumbledore, stood up at the center of the table in the front and began to speak:

"Welcome! Welcome to a new year at Hogwarts! Before we begin our banquet, I would like to say a few words. And here they are: Nitwit! Blubber! Oddment! Tweak! Thank you!"

And with that odd and quite hilarious speech, he sat.

I heard Harry and some other bloke on my left discussing the oddity that was Dumbledore. I had to agree, the man was quite mad. Hilarious, but mad. It kind of makes me wonder what he was like as a teenager.

In the middle of my thought process, suddenly, the many empty dishes before me were filled with delicious looking foods, and my goblet now had some sort of drink in it. It was dark and smelled like raspberries.

Something down in the pit of my stomach gurgled, and I nearly cried at the sight of all the food. I grabbed some of everything, instantly tearing into my meal. A conversation to my left caught my attention.

Harry was speaking with an odd looking man, and I blinked as I noticed I could see right through him. I rubbed my eyes, but I kept getting the same result. Holy crap. A ghost.

Fascinated, I decided to wait and see if he introduced himself.

"- I'm Sir Nicholas de Mimsy-Porpington at your service. Resident ghost of Gryffindor Tower."

Oh great, there was no way I was going to remember all of that. I hoped I never needed his help for…anything.

"I know who you are!" Ron's loud and slightly annoying voice forced me back to reality. "My brothers told me about you- you're Nearly Headless Nick!"

Nearly Headless? How could someone be nearly headless? Was the appendage hanging on by a jump of skin or something? Was it sutured with specter stitches?

"I would _prefer_ you to call me Sir Nicholas de Mimsy-" the ghost began haughtily, only to be interrupted by another boy, one with the same question I had. Thank goodness; I was too chicken to ask myself.

"_Nearly_ Headless? How can you be nearly headless?"

The ghost looked as if someone had snubbed him as he muttered about silly children and their silly questions.

"Like _this_," Sir Nicholas grabbed his left ear with his index finger and thumb and pulled, swinging his head until it fell limply onto his shoulders, almost like the top of a jar.

I found that my early theory had in fact been correct. The only thing keeping his head attached was a bit of flesh. I could see his insides. I was enthralled at the sight.

"Amazing!" Several of the students sent me odd looks, but I observed the nearly headless man with awe.

Sir Nicholas, who has also been slightly miffed by my cry, sniffed happily at the looks of shock on the others' faces.

"So- new Gryffindors! I hope you're going to help us with the house championship this year? Gryffindors have never gone so long without winning. Slytherins have gotten the cup six years in a row! The Bloody Baron's becoming almost unbearable- he's the Slytherin ghost."

Out of habit, my eyes flew to the farthest table, instinctively searching for the ghost. He must be interesting if his name is the Bloody Baron.

I got a bit distracted as I took a moment to wave at Brandi, who ignored me and pretended she didn't know who I was. It happened a lot, so it didn't bother me. It's just her personality.

At the far end of the table stood another mysterious ghost, the Bloody Baron.

Complete with a blank, cold face and bloodied robes, he looked like someone from a horror film. He was fascinating as well. I mentally told my brain to remind me to introduce myself to the ghost at all costs.

"How did he get covered in blood?" asked one of the boys curiously, gaining my fickle attention once more.

"I've never asked," Sir Nicholas replied, disappointing me slightly. What I would give to hear his obviously grim and horrifying tale.

"Interesting…" I mumbled, letting my eyes flick to the ghost once more. I jumped slightly as I realized he was staring back, having obviously caught on to the massive amounts of attention bestowed on him.

Giving him a small and unnoticeable wave, which he sadly did not respond to, I turned back around and resumed eating. After finishing everything, I grabbed my plate and licked it clean, savoring the wonderful after taste and earning a few looks of disgust from those around me.

"That's disgusting, you know," Hermione said disapprovingly. She was sitting diagonally from where I was. I half expected her to wag her finger at me.

"Yes, I know."

Shortly after our banter, the main course disappeared, and wonderful desserts were left in its place. I helped myself to something I couldn't identify, but it had the wondrous scent of chocolate emanating from it. It was nice and soft and gooey.

The talk around the table turned to talk about families.

"I'm half-and-half," Seamus said, and I inferred that they were talking about blood status, which I had eventually picked up on from Brandi. "Me dad's a Muggle. Mom didn't tell him she was a witch 'til after they were married. Bit of a nasty shock for him."

I laughed along with the rest, though it had nothing to do with what he said. I found his accent adorable.

"What about you, Neville?" Ron asked.

The boy gave a lengthy narrative, which was quite funny, actually, and I guessed he was a full-blooded wizard. I didn't catch most of it, only a snippet of a story about his Gran. I also learned of where he got that toad he was always losing.

I was slightly startled as the boy with the adorable accent, Seamus, asked about my blood status.

"Muggle born," I told him.

"Really? How did you find out about your powers?" he asked curiously, so I told.

"I actually had no idea about any of this magical stuff until I got my acceptance letter. Even then, my family and I were pretty convinced it was a joke or something. Brandi –my friend- didn't bother to mention it –she's in Slytherin. Eventually, Dumbledore came to our house and…kind of told me about all of this."

Something I said seemed to attract the attention of others as they stared at me oddly.

"Wait," Ron started, wide eyed. "_The_ Dumbledore came to your house?"

"Um…" I hesitated, wondering if that was odd. Hey, I didn't know, and Brandi wasn't here to tell me so. "Yes?"

I blinked as their faces became awe-filled, but they were quickly and thankfully interrupted as Harry began to clutch his head in pain, making odd wincing sounds.

"Are you alright?" a red head asked. I figured was related to Ron in some way, judging by the red hair.

"It's n-nothing," Harry mumbled, staring intently at his plate.

I glanced in the direction I had seen him looking before, but only saw the teachers' table. Blinking, I decided to forget it.

As Harry began to make small talk with the red head about one of the teachers, I laid a few more cakes onto my plate and attempted to fit a couple in my mouth at once, and I tried to have a loud conversation with Fred and George, who were at the other end of the table all the while.

**Brandi**

For Dumbledore, the speech was oddly short. I guess the man's a genius, and geniuses are usually a bit odd, so I'm not going to complain. Especially since just after his speech ended, an incredible amount of food blossomed on the golden platters like so many delicious-smelling flowers. I could almost imagine the look on Peyton's face at the sight of so much food. I glanced over at the Gryffindor table; I was quite sure I saw a few tears of happiness.

She was staring at the Bloody Baron, but she offered a wave and a large smile when she got distracted. I ignored her, as per usual, and turned to listen in on the Slytherins. I really hate to say that I knew at least sixty percent of them. Mommy and her productive lifestyle, of course, had a role in this.

I filled my plate with spiced ground beef and garlic toast, following with something purple from a jug on the table. Upon tasting, I found that it was grape juice. Gross.

"Wipe that look off your face, Holland!"

I turned to my left, where a large, muscled fifth year sat. Travis McLean seemed to have forced the first year girl to switch places with him, and I could see she was being tormented by his friends. The large, and flamboyantly homosexual, Travis smiled at me with his brilliant, toothy grin. I love Travis to death; he's absolutely hilarious.

The corners of my mouth twitched up in amusement. Unfortunately, my hatred of grape juice turned what was meant to be a smile into a sour pucker. "I can't. It's stuck this way!"

He slapped the side of my face lightly. "How ya been, doll?"

"Just wonderful, Travis. Evil mom, Muggle school, and Slytherin House."

"You make it sound like a dream come true," he said, winking. He grabbed a French fry from my plate, and I stabbed his hand with my fork.

"I'm just absolutely overjoyed," I mumbled sarcastically.

Travis grabbed his plate from in front of the girl. She switched places and sat on my right side to get away from her tormenters. Travis began to gossip like the girl he thinks he is; sometimes I don't know how anyone puts up with him.

One of the prefects –he had the ostentatious badge fully visible- glared down the table at Travis, who was yammering loudly. The prefect snapped, "I can't hear myself think, McLean!"

Travis rolled his eyes. "Shut up, Candy-ass, or I'll come down there!"

He looked down at me and winked again. "In fact…"

Travis ran off to bother the prefect boy. He's an idiot sometimes, but between Peyton and him, I seem to be especially tolerant of idiocy. Ah, doesn't matter.

The first years were keeping to themselves, but Malfoy was still as obnoxious as he always was. "My _father_ says this place has been going downhill for years."

No one paid him much attention, and unlike the other tables, blood purity wasn't the reigning question in Slytherin House. There aren't many Muggleborns, if any, and there are usually only a handful of half-blood kids. Being pureblood isn't discrimination; it's almost a house requirement. I'm not quite sure if I fall into the handful or not, since my mom isn't one to talk about my dad.

"How's old Lucius, Draco?" one of the older kids called. He was a sneering boy with deep brunette hair who I surprisingly wasn't familiar with.

"My father is fine, Magby," Malfoy snapped.

Hmm, so I was familiar with this kid, at least by familial reputation. The Magby's were big in the Ministry; Jonathan Magby was the Auror who brought Lucius Malfoy in for questioning when he came back from the Dark Lord.

"Touchy, touchy, Draco," I said, smirking. His face blushed pink and he proceeded to ignore me.

The willowy blonde girl on my right (who was taller than me) who'd been victimized by Travis turned to me and held out her hand. "I'm Tallulah Meyers. First year."

I shook hers in turn. "Brandi Holland, first year as well."

Tallulah nodded to the teacher's table. "So, what do you think of all this?"

"I think I can't wait to get started tomorrow," I replied.

We struck up a conversation, the rest of the table forgotten. I liked Tallulah; I kept wondering why I hadn't met her before. That was, until she told me she was Muggleborn. I nearly choked on my water and advised her not to spread it around. Muggleborns don't usually receive great reception from Slytherin, and it was almost unheard of for a Muggleborn to be _in_ Slytherin. Almost, but there have been Muggleborns over the years.

The four tables stopped chattering as Dumbledore stood up to begin his speech. "Ahem –just a few more words now that we are all fed and watered. I have a few start-of-term notices to give you.

I chewed on a particularly tough brownie as he kept on with his speech. "First years should note that the forest on the grounds is forbidden to all students. And a few of our older students would d well to remember that as well."

I saw his eyes dart over to the sea of redheads over at the Gryffindor table. Must be those twins from earlier.

"I have also been asked by Mr. Filch, the caretaker," (Who hasn't bathed in decades, I thought to myself), "to remind you that no magic should be used between classes in the corridors.

"Quidditch trials will be held the second week of term. Anyone interested in playing for their house teams should contact Madam Hooch."

Maybe in a few years, I decided.

"And finally, I must tell you that this year, the third-floor corridor on the right-hand side is out of bounds to everyone who does not wish to die a very painful death.

Cue the 'doom' overture.

"And now before we go to bed, let us sing the school song!"

Oh no. That's just great. I looked over at the teacher's table; they all seem to have a smile, which had become more of a grimace of pain. I cannot say I blame them.

Dumbledore stood up rather dramatically, whipped out his wand, and flicked it into the air. A long stream of beautiful golden ribbon exploded from the tip.

"Everyone pick their favorite tune," said Dumbledore, "and off we go!"

And, with uncharacteristic aplomb, I followed along. Even from the Slytherin table, I could hear Peyton shrieking totally out of tune to the Dragonball Z theme.

"_Hogwarts, Hogwarts, Hoggy Warty Hogwarts,  
Teach us something please,  
Whether we be old and bald or young with scabby knees  
Our heads could do with filling  
With some interesting stuff,  
For now they're bare and full of air,  
Dead flies and bits of fluff,  
So teach us things worth knowing,  
Bring back what we've forgot,  
Just do your best, we'll do the rest,  
And learn until our brains all rot."_

I finished as the dregs of the other students faded away with a spirited rendition of "Smoke on the Water" from Deep Purple. Peyton was still going at it (I think she started over) and finally it was just Fred and George Weasley belting out a funeral march-like tune. Dumbledore himself conducted the final lines of the song with his wand, and as they finished, the hall exploded into applause.

"Ah, music," he said, wiping at a tear. "A magic beyond all we do here! And now, bedtime! Off you trot!"

I jumped up and followed Travis, who was still humming along to the funeral march. Tallulah clung to my arm and together, the three of us filed in behind the two prefects.

The halls of Hogwarts were gorgeous. The walls were constructed of ancient marble, and moving paintings lined every few feet or so. The staircases above us changed periodically, apparently, as a few sets were twisting around at that moment.

I've never felt so at home.

The prefect who Travis called Candy-ass (his name was really Paisley Dervish) led everyone to the entrance to the dorm. Sadly, we didn't get to go upstairs with the other students; instead the Slytherins were led down into the dungeons. What a _huge_ surprise…

The dim lighting made Travis stumble, and he almost went down with me and Tallulah behind him. Paisley took us to a large expanse of bare wall, whereupon he faced and clearly enunciated, "_Bella gerant alii."_ (Let others wage war.)

The wall made a creaking noise and fell away to show a short path. We all filed in, and stepped into a large room. It was low and dimly lit, glowingly greenish from tiny little lights scattered throughout the low room. It was furnished with beautiful carved armchairs and every so often, a small skull dotted the room. Well, it was certainly cheery…

The female prefer motioned towards a staircase that led even farther down into the ground. "Boys dorms are on that end." She motioned towards a staircase that went up. "And girls dorms are on that side."

Paisley cleared his throat. "Bathrooms are down the hall outside on the left. Please take your belongings with you when you go to shower and return them to your dorm afterwards. Indecency is discouraged, but optional if you don't mind detentions. Curfew is at eleven. No one is to wander the halls after that time."

The girl (Wanda Sykes) spat out what seemed to be the next part of a rehearsed dual speech. "You will receive your schedules tomorrow at breakfast. First years, please take care to go to your classes early in case you get lost. Ask a portrait or someone from Hufflepuff if you do; there're less likely to send you on a wild goose chase."

Paisley cut in, "Now it is way past eleven, and if Professor Snape has to come in here, we're all dead. So get to bed and get there fast."

The older kids nearly tripped over themselves as they ran to the staircases. The first years followed close behind; it was better to take the hint and run rather than get caught.

Tallulah and I were at the front of the pack of first years, and I threw open the dorm for us five girls. It was an oblong room, quite a bit brighter than the dorm, but without windows. Apparently we were underground, below the lake as a matter of fact. As I said, it's a cheery place.

The beds were all iron-wrought monstrosities with emerald green bed sheets and a curtain to pull for privacy. Someone had chosen to give me the bed opposite the door, as my trunk sat at the foot of the bed. Not to mention, my fat purple kitten had somehow worked his way out of his basket and claimed my pillow as his bed. Oh, no. We couldn't have that.

I jumped onto the bed and tried to pry him away from the pillow. He latched on for dear life, digging his claws into the thread of the pillowcase. My idiot cat had been doing this all summer, and had the bad habit of sleeping on my face. Little bugger.

"Having trouble?"

I looked up to see another girl, Karen Hinkle, watching me with a level of amusement. Karen was a pretty girl; long dark hair, blue eyes, and clear skin. She's a snotty princess, too.

"Not at all."

Karen shrugged and flopped onto her own bed. I turned back to my cat, which was glaring at me, for all the world, like my mother in a bad mood. While his guard was lowered, I snatched him up and put him at the foot of the bed.

I stripped out of my clothes and pulled on my pajamas. With a full stomach, I laid down to sleep. And then Butters sat on my face._  
_

**Peyton**

As we were led by the red head from before, who I had learned was named Percy (which didn't matter, since I would forget it anyway), I was wide awake and taking in everything around me.

The staircases were moving, portraits were talking. All in all, I was amazed. I stopped for a moment to have a short conversation with one of the portraits and found that they were quite polite. I think I might have to make a habit of this.

After a while of walking, in which I couldn't take in enough around me, the group of first years suddenly halted, almost knocking me over. Glancing to the front, I noticed there were a number of sticks floating in the air ahead, and everyone had stopped to stare.

Percy stomped forward, and the sticks began to throw themselves at him.

"That's Peeves, a poltergeist," He informed us, and then raised his voice. "Peeves! Show yourself!"

A rude sound was the only reply, and I had a feeling this 'Peeves' had blown a raspberry at the boy. I was starting to like him.

"Do you want me to go to the Bloody Baron?" Percy threatened, and only then did the poltergeist show himself. I filed this away for future knowledge.

With a pop, the little man became visible. He had a wide grin, and evil, mischievous eyes. I was reminded of a Cheshire cat.

"Ooooooh!" He moaned. "Ickle Firsties! What fun!"

The little man suddenly swooped at us all, and I was relieved to find that, as the shortest of them all, he came nowhere near me. Sometimes it pays to be four inches above being a midget.

"Go away, Peeves, or the Baron'll hear about this, I mean it!" That was the second time he had mentioned the Bloody Baron, and I had the distinct feeling that the little man was afraid of the ghost.

He stuck his tongue out and disappeared, leaving the sticks to fall on poor Neville. Distinct banging and clattering was heard further down the hall we had walked through before, leaving a slightly fuming Percy.

"You'll want to watch out for Peeves. The only one who can control him is the Baron; he won't even listen to use prefects. Here we are."

I was interrupted from my dreaming of what a prefect was when we arrived. Again, Brandi wasn't here to tell me.

A large portrait hung on the wall before us, depicting a very large lady in a hideously pink silk dress.

"Password?" she asked.

"Caput Draconis," Percy replied. I blinked as I realized we would have to remember a password. Great, I was horrible at remembering things. I would probably be locked out at some point.

The portrait swung forward, which surprised me, before everyone stepped forward and into a round hole in the wall.

Everyone scuttled through it, Neville and I needing a little help to my embarrassment (curse my shortness), and found ourselves in a nice, warm room with furniture everywhere.

Percy directed us girls to one staircase, which I darted up happily, Hermione falling just behind. We ran up to the top of the staircase before we found our dorm. Gazing around, I found the room looked quite nice. There were five four-poster beds, complete with deep red, velvet curtains around the beds, perhaps for privacy.

I was ecstatic when I realized my bed was the one next to a window, which meant I could open it and receive some light from the moon. It wouldn't be completely dark at night.

Relieved, I darted to my bed and changed into my pajamas, not even bothering to close the curtain. I was never a private person to begin with, except when I slept. I was paranoid while I attempted to sleep.

Settling down in bed and closing the curtain, leaving a small opening where the window was, I opened the window and lied down, happy with the bit of light.

Snuggling into my cover and with the Pikachu doll I had smuggled in, I drifted off into a deep sleep.

* * *

**The Eccentric Otaku:** Yo~ In case you've noticed, this chapter isn't as long as all of the others. Get over it. Hopefully, the next one will be longer. I'm going to try to switch P.O.V.s more so that Peyton(me) and Brandi(my oh so charming best friend) get an equal amount of screen time. Yep.

So review and stay tuned for the next chapter of For Want of a Nail! (Anyone else love Dragon Ball Z?)


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